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ABOUT CHAPTER 8 |
| In
chapter 8, an example was give of a
Nyabinghi inspired rhythm, programmed
in the general midi format. Some tips
and tricks are given. It is explained
why it is close to impossible to
program a Nyabinghi track. It is
tradionally a drum session in which at
least three drummers are playing, but
many times, more. They interact with
each other, and with the lyrics sung
on top of the Nyabinghi session, so
all these things can not be
programmed. Therefore, it is better to
speak of Nyabinghi inspired rhythms
when programming was involved in the
production process. |
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MAIN TEXT |
| Basically,
your computer has two different ways
of processing music, MIDI (Musical
Instrument Digital Interface) and
AUDIO (sound). I'll give you a short
explanation of both ways in this
chapter, of which the title of this
chapter is a bit misleading, I'll
start right of with that. It is close
to impossible, to use the computer for
the creation of Dub, and not use midi.
I couldn't have been giving you most
of the examples in this series, if I
hadn't used MIDI. In the same time, I
can not restrict myself to use only
midi when it comes to creating a dub
track that I want to release. So it's
rather: midi AND audio. MIDI
Midi is a protocol, originally
designed in the 1980's to make
synthesizers work together. You could
play on one keyboard and use the sound
of another. Cool, huh? That's what I
thought when I first heard if it
(not). I thought, what's the use of
being able to play note on one
keyboard and use sounds of the other.
Now, ofcourse, there is not so much
use for that, but since the 1990's, it
is possible to use midi in a far more
sophisticated manner. The keyword in
this is called "SEQUENCER".
As you might have guessed, MIDI is a
protocol, that sends notes and other
information from one (musical) device
to another. It doesn't send the actual
sounds, but the notes. Midi
information is like: Play A3 for 1
second and three milliseconds. Then
wait 300 milliseconds and play G3 for
500 milliseconds. With a sequencer,
you can record and playback midi data
on several devices. You can record a
bass, a drum, and other instruments on
different tracks, and play it back.
And, very important, you can change
the information stored in a sequencer
multitrack recording (in short: a
midifile). In the next chapters I'll
write much more about MIDI, but I'
would like to leave it here, reminding
you that midi records notes and other
information, not the sounds. Midi lets
the computer record the notes and play
it back, optionally after processing
the notes in various ways. AUDIO Audio
is a lot less difficult to explain, as
it's another word for sound. When you
do audio recording, you are not, like
in MIDI, recording the notes, but you
are recording the actual sound. Where
a midifile can play on every
soundcard, it will sound different on
every soundcard because of the sounds
in the synthesizer. But an audio file
will sound more or less the same on
every different soundcard. Most known
examples of audio files are the WAV
and the MP3 files. When you want to
make Dub, the audio part is very
important, for the art of Dub is, to
alter sounds. To make a guitar sound
different, not because you play a midi
part of a guitar on a piano, but
because you can manipulate the AUDIO,
the SOUND, of the guitar.
CONCLUSION: MIDI OR AUDIO? To make Dub
on your computer, you need to use the
possibilities of both audio and midi.
Roughly spoken, you use MIDI to create
a riddim, and then you use AUDIO to
make a Dub of the riddim. In the next
chapters I will elaborate on MIDI,
when it comes to creating a riddim. |
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