Which way to record is the best - manually or via MIDI?

[Keyboardist]

Hi, guys! I am a new member of this forum and i dont know if this question had been already asked, so sorry in advance

I have a such kind of problem: now i am recording keyboards for one of my songs, and it consists of a lot of keyboard parts. Some of them are the same, but should be played via different sounds. And it's very difficult to play them 2 or 3 times similarly, but with other sound. So i just recorded all keydoards via MIDI into my computer-sequensor, edited all notes in midi-editor to sound exactly equally, and tried to play and record them via korg triton studio.

However, i noticed that sound played & recorded manually sounds really different from sound recorded via midi. The second one sounds very "artificially". I thinks it depends on that fact that midi cant record all nuances of human-playing and korg triton's keyboard.

So i have no idea how to record my keyboards - manually i cant play it exactly equally - it's too fast and difficult; via MIDI it sounds very "artificially". What do you think of this?

Certanly, I can record all parts in internal KORG TRITON sequensor and save into SNG-file. Than i can edit it at my computer. I suppose that in this case all korg nuances can be saved, but i cant find any editors of KORG SNG-files. Maybe you can offer me something?

Thanks in advance!

[xmlguy]

The problem seems to be the manner in which you are editing the midi recording.

Play the part slowly, but with good dynamic expression while recording the midi. Do NOT change the velocity/level of the individual notes. Then you can alter the tempo and use the Quantize function in the sequencer to better align the notes to the tempo. You can change any wrong notes, but leave the velocity alone to maintain the expression of the performance.

[Keyboardist]

Oh, thanks! I got it! Really, dont know why i had not found such simple solution of this problem myself before...

However, actually I dont think that midi can record all nuances of human playing, am i right? Or not?

[BasariStudios]

What do you mean by Manually and MIDI? Do toy mean Step and RealTime
or something else?

[Keyboardist]

I ment that:

1)manually: i just play synth and record audio-signal into my computer-sequensor

2)via MIDI: i play synth and record MIDI signal into my sequensor, than i edit recorded midi-track and computer plays it via MIDI and records it as audio at the same time.

anyway, even if you dont change anything in recorded midi and right away play your recorded midi via KORG Triton Studio, you can notice that sound will be really different from that was recorded "manually"!

[georgeinar]

First of all there are many factors here. Are you quantizing as you play, because if you are that might be the problem. Usually for parts that you want to sound as if played by a human (not a computer) you should record and play in HI resolution so your notes are not stored according to a quantisization factor and will remain as you played them, it also records how hard you hit the note, how long you hold it, whether you apply extra pressure once the note is played (after touch). If you do this you may find a more natural recording of your original performance. I hope this helps.

[Keyboardist]

ok, thank you very much! It really sounds cool!

[MIA]

I usually modify the MIDI within the Korg and then drop it on the PC. I find it easier, and that way I'm still using the "manual" playback with a little magic lol

[phaceless]

if you are recording you should do it audio..if you are sequencing then use midi......if you want to have different sounds play the same part...record it in your triton then to your pc then just change the sound on your triton and rerecord