Using MIDI

I must say, that using MIDI from the Piano Roll view is quite good in Sonar. Thanks to the SWA videos I got what I needed to get running, and find that adding a string section to a song was quite easy. 

I'm not a MIDI fan, and I still believe MIDI is way overdue for an overhaul to make it simpler to understand, but after I struggled for years to begin understanding MIDI, after getting a session where it was needed, I have to say, this explains some of the big benefits of Sonar, and I never saw any of this before seeing it in the SWA videos. Cakewalk should take note here. 

Anyway, found some more value in Sonar. Thanks! It improved my mood over some issues I have with Take Lanes.

I think if it weren't for Karl's approach from the SWA videos in explaining how this worked, I would still be thoroughly confused. 

I still do not use Sonar for Mastering. It's not a good tool for that. Only for a quick-shot demo in that regard. It simply doesn't have the capabilities Wavelab does for what I deem a good Mastering platform. But this was what Wavelab was designed for, at least ultimately.

gbarrett : " FWIW, think of MIDI as a musical word processor. It basically just records keystrokes. The piano roll, event editor, staff view, they all just display the keystrokes in unique ways, but it's just keystrokes. "

Yes, but I think this is only half the story. MIDI also lets all the different pieces talk to each other.

USB connects them together, but the language they speak amongst themselves is MIDI(the control part of MIDI).

I agree that MIDI is past due for an overhaul, but with most hardware instruments produced in the last 10 years with on-board USB, it renders the MIDI spec as a non-issue. FWIW, think of MIDI as a musical word processor. It basically just records keystrokes. The piano roll, event editor, staff view, they all just display the keystrokes in unique ways, but it's just keystrokes.

Yes, MIDI was just designed to connect an outboard controller to a computer. That is one reason that it needs upgrading. But no, USB connection does not come close to replacing the MIDI spec. USB just carries MIDI data to and  from your keyboard in a somewhat less flexible manner. USB through?


If you are editing a MIDI track in Sonar, you are not using the electrical spec at all, but you are using the control spec, as are all of your softsynths. If you are using the piano roll or the event editor, you are using MIDI, not as an interface, but as a programming language, modifying the code in what is unfortunately, not the best imaginable code editor. As someone who has used Cakewalk sequencers for a long time, my biggest complaint is that the midi aspect has not advanced while the audio has been given massive attention. 


Still, I can program midi performances that not only I can not perform on a keyboard, but no one could perform, writing code to control instruments that can make sounds of such rapidity and duration that no human being could manage with a metal or wooden instrument, and with the kind of subtlety that is simply not available from a midi controller manned by a performer in real time.


Even if you think of MIDI as a word processor for music, I imagine you are not old enough to remember when a letter had to be typed correctly the first time and could not be duplicated except by interposing a thin sheet of paper impregnated with carbon dust and a binder, to yield at most two or three readable copies. The ability to produce easily editable copy was an enormous advance. The ability to step out of a keyboard performance and move and alter phrases with such flexibility is of inestimable value.

The most incredible thing about MIDI is that it ever happened at all.  And this is mainly down to Dave Smith (Of Sequential Circuits fame).
 
To get various manufacturers to agree to a standard was a major feat in itself.  I think it is unlikely that this would even be possible now.
 
No manufacturer would want to put development time and money into a new standard unless everyone is going to do it.  They will wait for others to adopt first, and you end up in a catch 22 situation.  So I'm not sure if we'll ever see MIDI updated.
 
There was a fascinating live discussion on this recently including (amongst others) Dave Smith, Tom Oberheim, Alan Parsons and our very own Craig Anderton.  If I find the link to the video I'll post it.
 
I've been using MIDI since it's inception.  My first synth was a Roland JX-3P, an analogue synth with this new MIDI invention.  It blew me away then, and it still does.  It means my various equipment, from Roland, Kawai, Ensoniq, Yamaha synths, Yamaha and Roland drums, guitar effects from various manufacturers etc etc - can ALL talk to one another.

and OSC works wonders with technologies that support it.