what am i missing with midi?

[lavoll]

I think I've tried to ask this question before.. and it is still not very well formulated in my head. anyways.

it goes something like this:

I write music for films, commercials, theatre tv etc... and songs.
I'm very happy with my sonar, reason, acid, audition setup at home, and my protools / sonar recording studio.

when people here ask things like should i switch from cubase to pro tools, then you might answer no. because midi is not as good in protools.

are you with me so far hehe.

but...really, when i think about it. I'm perfectly happy recording midi into reason as well as acid or sonar. but sonar is superior to the others in midi editing etc, yes?
but I dont feel like i am doing anything more with midi in sonar than in for example reason.
i record, maybe fix a little on my performance.. or rerecord.

so my questions is something like "what am i missing out on?" what are all the amazing things that cubase and sonar and the like do so much better with midi than e.g. pro tools or reason??




are there huge time-saving features i am oblivious to? etc.

i hope any of this made any sense.

[dramsenik]

I'm far from a midi junkie but since some time i have the same question with PT...what is lacking ??? nothing that i need badly, that's sure

maybe some Sonar/Cubase user will enlight us ?

[Sascha Franck]

I'm in no way able to answer your question, but for me, Logics superb MIDI editing (still unrivalled IMO) is one of the main reasons for not being able to switch to, say, Cubase (which is the only other "big" sequencer I own).
Mainly this has got to do with a) the superb implementation of quantizing and b) the way editors can be handled and linked.

As said, this doesn't answer your question, but for me comfortable MIDI editing is just what I need - so it might apply to other hosts as well.

[lavoll]

anyone else have some comments?

[Majken]

I always found MIDI editing to be messy in Protools and the fact that it's not block styled makes it even worse. In Cubase or any other host you can just create short loops and scramble around to make an arrangement. ProTools never felt as straight forward to me, then again I haven't used it since 5.x so things might have changed.

/Majken

[BabyaSoftwareGr]

I find Logic's MIDI editing unparalled as well.

[lavoll]

how? why? and more importantly: what exactly do you do?

[dramsenik]

I always found MIDI editing to be messy in Protools and the fact that it's not block styled makes it even worse. In Cubase or any other host you can just create short loops and scramble around to make an arrangement. ProTools never felt as straight forward to me, then again I haven't used it since 5.x so things might have changed.

/Majken

sorry but even in PT 5.xx you could already do this...(making bock from midi parts)

[Pouckypluysch]

I recently got a demonstration of Pro Tools. I was wondering about the same, but as far as I can tell, you won't be missing anything in Pro Tools if you're comfortable with the MIDI functionality in Reason.

[HanafiH]

so my questions is something like "what am i missing out on?" what are all the amazing things that cubase and sonar and the like do so much better with midi than e.g. pro tools or reason??

Some people like to make music by painstakingly programming a midi sequence into a sequence editor - a process similar to 'tracking', which is essentially the same but without any useful tools - this a very traditional way of making some forms of computer/synth music. If you work this way the ability to micromanage midi sequences becomes very important.

If you don't need this or don't work this way, it doesn't really matter much.

[Sascha Franck]

Some people like to make music by painstakingly programming a midi sequence into a sequence editor - a process similar to 'tracking', which is essentially the same but without any useful tools - this a very traditional way of making some forms of computer/synth music. If you work this way the ability to micromanage midi sequences becomes very important.

If you don't need this or don't work this way, it doesn't really matter much.

I'm not doing any such things, yet I seem to be missing too much to get used to any other hosts MIDI editing but Logics.
For instance, there's no host with such a great control about quantizing, as Logic is the only one actually displaying your q-values on a per-part base, straight in your arrangement. That's just an incredible helper when it comes to sorting out grooves that aren't quantized strictly.
Oh, and Logic has got a velocity tool...

[dramsenik]

only one actually displaying your q-values on a per-part base, straight in your arrangement

OK but for the few occasions you need this you can always name your midi part like "Chor1_take2_Q65%_Stenght95%_Rnd5%"...no? (OK: this add a step but again only for the few occasions, unless you need this a lot in your work).

Oh, and Logic has got a velocity tool...

What special things does this tool in Logic?

[Sascha Franck]

OK but for the few occasions you need this you can always name your midi part like "Chor1_take2_Q65%_Stenght95%_Rnd5%"...no? (OK: this add a step but again only for the few occasions, unless you need this a lot in your work).

Few occasions? I'm using it all the time.
Let alone adjusting different q-values is WAY quicker than in any other host.

What special things does this tool in Logic?

Raising and lowering velocity. Yes, you can do that in any sequencer. But I just have it on my right mousebutton: Select a bunch of notes, drag up down and their velocities will be changed (relatively to each other in case you selected more than one). This can't be any quicker.

[even7]

Select a bunch of notes, drag up down and their velocities will be changed (relatively to each other in case you selected more than one). This can't be any quicker.

live can also do this. and it doesn't need a velocity tool for that

[jmh]

But Live needs switching tools for either moving notes or altering their velocity and so on - pretty clunky compared to a lot of other hosts

JMH