Need advice on MIDI (from the ground up)

[wardjames]

I'm venturing into the world of MIDI for the first time with two main purposes:

 

1. Be able to update demos with fresh material. Since I sing and can play guitar, I'd like to be able to do as much as possible at home prior to going to the studio to add any necessary finishing touches.

 

2. Use some tracks live, for banjos, some keys, certain rhythm guitar parts, etc. to the extent possible.

 

I've gone to www.midihits.com, and found some great tracks of songs we do, so I won't eed to worry about programming for the time being, just turning their midi tracks into the most usable possible.

 

I've just got a Mac Mini, and will be getting an IPAD, which I'd like to use live. My instincts are to initially keep it simple by panning a click left for the drummer and the actual tracks right to run to FOH.

 

Any suggestions on VST software and a DAW to run this on? I'm new to the Mac world. Does Garageband sound sufficient? Or is something else better?

 

I'm a track neophyte, so any advice on how to get this done as efficiently as possible would be great.

[kmart]

You may want to re-title your thread.

 

Not ALL tracks are MIDI files, and vice-versa.

You're looking for fundamentals/basics for tracks, yes?

 

Here's a hint:

In your example, pan click left for drummer, keep tracks centered, so drummer can hear them as well. He may not want a ton, but it's better than just click. I know I want tracks as much as click, and if I had click only, it would blow.

[ggm1960]

When I created midi backing tracks for my band I took my inspiration from articles I'd been reading in Keyboard magazine and thus I switched from PC/Sonar to Mac/Digital Performer. DP is unique in that you can save all the songs you want (as separate "chunks" or sequences) in one project file so you can easily cue up songs. Any other DAW program I know of requires you to load up a new file for each song.

 

A lot of people are now using MainStage that comes with Logic Studio. Although I also have that program I just haven't taken any time to check it out.

[wardjames]

 

You may want to re-title your thread. Not ALL tracks are MIDI files, and vice-versa. You're looking for fundamentals/basics for tracks, yes? Here's a hint: In your example, pan click left for drummer, keep tracks centered, so drummer can hear them as well. He may not want a ton, but it's better than just click. I know I want tracks as much as click, and if I had click only, it would blow.

 

 

I thought that as soon as I posted, but couldn't figure out how to change it. Eventually, I'd like to actually record some guitar bits for certain parts, etc., so you're right it wouldn't be 100% MIDI

 

That panning center idea is great, everything I read mentioned hard left and right.