CYBERMIDI MUSIC and MIDI Blog

DAWs or Digital Audio Workstation is the musician's best friend, next to his or her MIDI keyboard that is. It's an electronic system that is designed for the purpose of recording, editing and playing back digital audio.

DAWs typically consist of a mixing console, control surface, audio converter, and a data storage all in one nifty package. A computer based DAW will need a computer, a sound card, a digital audio editor and an input device - your keyboard controller for example.

For the amateur musician and avid mac & apple user then nothing beats Garageband '11 - the latest software in Apple's amateur musician software line-up. You can get one when buying a new Mac, as part of the iLife'11 suite or as a standalone from the Mac Apple Store.

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When you say MIDI keyboard you're talking about a variety of electric or digital keyboards out there. Unlike before where only special keyboards were able to do MIDI, nowadays almost all modern electric keyboards are MIDI compatible. You can't miss them - they're the ones with the MIDI In & Out slots in the back.

There are basically two types of electronic keyboards - the controller and the piano types

1) The controller is typically what many would associate with the term MIDI keyboard. While it has keys you won't hear any sound when you press them. You need to have a computer running a digital audio workstation (DAW) software to convert the MIDI impulses to sound.

Because they don't have any speakers controllers are generally smaller and cheaper than their regular piano type counterparts. This makes them versatile and portable and can fit in almost any space you can think of.

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Midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) plays a crucial role in today's music production. Thus it is vital if you are an aspiring music producer that you get a understanding of midi description and its functions. It helps use mix music and makes it possible for one person to make the music of a whole band or orchestra.

First, here is a description of a pc midi interface functions and advantages:

Compact - a single CD can hols thousands of songs and/or one single 3 " floppy disc can hold hours of music.

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So, you open up a new song in GarageBand and add a software instrument. It loads up a Grand Piano and sits there waiting for you to play your masterpiece. But wait, there's a problem. What do you use to play this piano, your computer keyboard? I don't think so.

One of the first things new GarageBand users realize is that it's very difficult performing, programming and recording MIDI using a QWERTY keyboard. This sends them on a journey to find the right MIDI keyboard. The problem is that, for a newbie, the number of different MIDI keyboards available is overwhelming. How do they decide which one is right for them? Let's take a look at the options.

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t's hard to imagine that CYBERMIDI started way back in 2001. The world has gone through some major changes since then.  But change doesn't always have to be a bad thing.

Our web site engine and design, though safe and secure, is old and outdated now.  It's time to build an entire new framework for appearance, sales and member downloads.

We have found a solution and have aready began the rebuild.  Creating the basic framework is easy.  Building the back-end membership system is not.  So it's taking a bit longer than I had planned for to launch.

Once completed, we will be offering different levels of membership, some with "limited download" options.  This will bring back our month to month membership, and also offer a new "FREE membership option.  

I'm proud that we have not "sold out" and abandoned the unlimited download concept, and that will still be offered.  However the costs of maintaining that need to be taken in considered when building the new pricing tiers.

That said, the good news is that current members will be grandfathered in once the change takes place, and will not be affected by any price or tier changes.

So I invite you to stay in the loop and follow CYBERMIDI on Facebook and Twitter.

There is no time trame for the transition, but we are still targeting 2016.  So keep in touch.

Questions? Please comment below.

Introduction

Computer processing speeds have now reached the point where it is becoming increasingly viable to run software simulations of synthesizers, samplers and drum-machines on personal computers within the popular MIDI Audio DAW's such as Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Logic Pro and Cubase SX - providing an even more highly integrated environment for music recording and production. Just as the wide range of software signal processing plug-ins has been developed - bringing the outboard into the computer environment - now the programmers are bringing in the MIDI gear as well. These software simulations are also known as virtual instruments as they are constructed using computer code rather than real hardware.

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