Peter Boy

This was wonderful to read. Thanks Craig. I'll have to assume that most or all of these techniques and tips apply to live performances. One or maybe two man-bands. MIDI and live performances as opposed to recording. Leave it to Craig to tackle this issue. I want to hear more from Craig and might have something of my oun to add. Getting MIDI to sound live is no easy task especially where floor real estate in a cub environment or any other pubic venue is concerned. A MIDI brass section, string section, percussive section and a grand piano can involve acres of room real state to give your audience that live ballroom flavor you know they deserve. Oh.. What to do...... My principals don't allow my music to come off "fake" when my audience's feelings and emotions are in the palm of my hand. Personally, I would do without MIDI instruments whatever if I can't get them to sound authentic to my audience. But then, I don't do weddings where the music is usually incidental either, and MIDI brass, guitars, pianos, strings and drum machines are probably expected. Along with your typical DJ, radio host announcer front man vocalist. What separates the pros from the amateurs is authenticity plain and simple. All the beeps and whistles MIDI CC's are great for FX. But when substituting acoustic instruments for MIDI, in a live venue where room ambiance is as much a part of the performance as the musician and his/her instrument, you'll probably need up to three times the floor space and room size for one, and three to four times the speaker/amplifier system to help reproduce the authenticity a real string and brass section would produce. Otherwise, Keep it simple and pure and cut the MIDI instruments from the act. That said, I'm all for recording and manipulation great samples from S.O.T A. Samples libraries. Where you should keep MIDI instruments where they belong. In the recording environment.

All great info and suggestions here Craig. Thanks! I would mention however, that in the MIDI world where all your tracking, mixing, and mastering skills combine with inspiration and compositional technique, many times the lines blur between that act of tracking and the act of mixing I.E.., the introduction of processing and FX etc.. When I started out recording back in the early 60's, well, you had no choice. You had to mix and master after all the tracking was done. But even then, the wisest engineers considered the later duties of "the mix" where we get the old phrase, "We'll fix it in the mix" from, right from the beginning of the tracking sessions. So, there might be less to "fix" when the mixing time came. Then, those very same precautionary considerations would be made before the "magic" of mastering occurred. Today, at my DAW, I will pre-produce my projects so as to fold in as much of the mix/mastering duties as I can because 1) the technology enables me, and 2) my time is used more efficiently. Well yeah, it took years to get to this point as experience is the best teacher. But I really would like to emphasize the point you made about preparation going into the project. If you outline and set up your tools before you go in, you're going to let a lot more spontanaiety emerge=workflow=productivity=happiness=a good night sleep and may even=more $$$$!

Thanks for this aticle. I have been using accoustic foam for many years in my home studios. The best thing I've found to fasten the 2X4, 2X2 pannels are stick pins directly to the sheetrock or wood pannel walls. Little damage to surfaces and you can remove them anytime no worries. No dust or cobwebs between the foam and the walls either.