Digital Audio Workstation and real instruments together in Harmony

The standard midi controller and the hardware used to convert midi date from controllable devices i.e. Midi Keyboards were set up with standards set by David Smith in the early 90’s. David is the founder of Californian Synth Legend Sequential Circuits and now head of Dave Smith Instruments. Roland bought out his company and then Korg purchased the company from Roland. Korg is one of the most sought after manufacturer synthesizers in the twenty-first century! I found a video of Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock in 1984 using MIDI technology and Hancock is playing a really funky tune on his Midi Keyboard for Quincy Jones. This is how electronic and synthesized sound was produced 32 years ago!

My studio is at my home. In my studio I score full productions for advertising, commercials, trailers, and engineer sounds. When scripting an idea I use a Launchkey Novation Synthesizer (a Midi Keyboard) with Logic Pro software. I record an idea of what I want to produce then go find musicians to play the parts that I cannot. I play guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, trombone, and clarinet parts in my sessions in my studio. Before my time as a student at Full Sail University I was going to Glenville State College for a degree in Orchestral Performance as a clarinetist. Here I learned how to play many instruments. Through time I have acquired a wide range of them and have the capability to pair real instruments with DAW software patches to create realistic sounding mock ups.

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The most fascinating thing I have learned from mixing real instruments with Midi produced sound is that the possibilities of timbre, tone, reverb and modulation are all unlimited. Logic Pro and the Novation Launchkey have opened a whole new world of creativity for me as a musician. I have the ability to create a recording with all live audio recordings or go the complete other direction and compose a track “in-the-box”.

With Logic Pro X I can and usually use the DAW to record real instruments and be able to blend the two (fake-midi software and real -recording) then edit them in the same workplace.

My hope is that after reading this you can appreciate the talent and creativity of synthesized arrangements. It isn’t easy being one-man orchestra or designing sound elements by compiling dozens of audio/Midi tracks. When there is music in someone’s heart, it must be released! I can release the ideas in my imagination with this MIDI and DAW technology.