In my previous tutorials I talked about the setup of a basic home studio, and how to record vocals using Ableton live. You can find the posts in the archives on the menu or follow the link below.
Midi Input - Please check my tutorial on home studio basic set up and I would have provided some midi solutions. Go with whatever instrument you are comfortable with - Example... If you are a drummer and have an electronic kit, you can hook it to the PC/MAC through the midi in/outs and trigger any virtual drum kit (option provided below)
In this tutorial, I will be explaining the basics of midi and options for good virtual instruments to use in Ableton. MIDI or the Musical Instrument Digital Interface is the industry standard spec of capturing musical notes with almost all of the human variations during playing such as pitch, velocity, volume, vibrato etc digitally. Once captured digitally these can then be changed to whatever you feel like. This high level of freedom is what gives midi a unique strength.
Note - However the one drawback is the notes you get in are only as powerful as the digital instrument you can use to play them on.
Example - you recorded yourself or a session artist playing on a Yamaha Baby Grand or a Motif and once the recording was captured into Ableton you sliced the notes into midi (this is an excellent feature which i will deal in later tutorials)......if the last sentence does not make any sense, just visualize that all the notes that were played on the piano are now available for you to transpose, swap around and use on a different instrument inside your system. You pick a free vst available online and push the notes on it. Guess what happens, the sound you get might be horrible compared to the sweet sound of the Yamaha Grand or a Moti.
To counter this, you will need to spend and buy yourself some of the excellent Virtual Synths or Virutal Instrument Packages out there on the market. From what I have used so far I would rate the following as the best options out there for a home studio where there is not enough space for all the instruments in the world.
Midi Input - Please check my tutorial on home studio basic set up and I would have provided some midi solutions. Go with whatever instrument you are comfortable with - Example... If you are a drummer and have an electronic kit, you can hook it to the PC/MAC through the midi in/outs and trigger any virtual drum kit (option provided below)
In this tutorial, I will be explaining the basics of midi and options for good virtual instruments to use in Ableton. MIDI or the Musical Instrument Digital Interface is the industry standard spec of capturing musical notes with almost all of the human variations during playing such as pitch, velocity, volume, vibrato etc digitally. Once captured digitally these can then be changed to whatever you feel like. This high level of freedom is what gives midi a unique strength.
Note - However the one drawback is the notes you get in are only as powerful as the digital instrument you can use to play them on.
Example - you recorded yourself or a session artist playing on a Yamaha Baby Grand or a Motif and once the recording was captured into Ableton you sliced the notes into midi (this is an excellent feature which i will deal in later tutorials)......if the last sentence does not make any sense, just visualize that all the notes that were played on the piano are now available for you to transpose, swap around and use on a different instrument inside your system. You pick a free vst available online and push the notes on it. Guess what happens, the sound you get might be horrible compared to the sweet sound of the Yamaha Grand or a Moti.
To counter this, you will need to spend and buy yourself some of the excellent Virtual Synths or Virutal Instrument Packages out there on the market. From what I have used so far I would rate the following as the best options out there for a home studio where there is not enough space for all the instruments in the world.
- Full Instruments - Komplete from Native Instruments. If there is one complete package that I would recommend going for, it would be this software. It is mind blowing how good the sounds of the instruments are on this package. If you are beginner I would suggest to use Komplete Elements to get your feet wet. It has close to 3GB of great quality instruments. If you are a more seasoned user then go with the second option, Komplete 8 full suite. It has a massive 110GB of music samples :O!
- Pianos - there are many options for VST pianos. Below are the ones that are not too expensive. The pianos included in Ableton sound alright, but if you want great grand piano sound, then invest in any of the following. Check out Torleys review of Alicia keys on YouTube video below, I am a subscriber to his channel since he has some very in depth videos of virtual instruments, thanks Mr.Torley!
- Drums - EZdrummer is a staple in many recording studios. So would recommend it without any hesitation. The drums in ableton do not sound bad either, you could EQ them to get different sounding kits each time.
- Guitars and Bass - If you took the first option and decided to go with a suite of instruments, then all the basic instruments will be packaged. But if you are looking for stand alone rigs since you are a guitarist go with the choice below, they provide you an interface and loads of amps for recording your guitar. And the good thing is this device comes bundled with a version Ableton Live which can record up to 8 tracks at one time and for a home studio user 8 tracks is a lot!
With all of that out of the way....my next tutorial will feature the method of recording midi into Ableton Live and also some tweaks. Check back soon!
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