What in MIDI is going on?

Electronic music has always been a pretty foreign concept for me. I’ve always chosen alternate rock over any other genre. As my interest and knowledge in music and audio has increased over the past year, I’ve realised that there is a whole side to audio that I have never ever explored, and that is electronic music. I’ve found a new appreciation in creating music on the computer and how versatile and personal is can be. Ableton Live is a popular software in which many people use to explore their creative side. I’ve been itching to start learning Ableton and to see what comes out of learning how to create electronic music.

In saying this, It’s definitely been brought to my attention that it’s a bit more complicated than I originally thought! Understanding concepts like MIDI, drum loops, sequencing and sampling (to name a few) has definitely challenged my previous music knowledge. I grew up playing various instruments and learning music from a musical theory background, so the idea of creating music on a computer is terrifying yet super exciting to me!

I wanted to explore the concept of MIDI in the blog. It took me a while to understand exactly what MIDI was and what the purpose of it was, and after many classes and youtube videos later, I finally understood.

This video here will explain MIDI better than I can attempt to, so check it out! (this one really helped me).

This image was derived from the website http://whereisdarran.com/2014/02/recording-a-software-instrument-using-midi-in-ableton-live/ and is a visual representation of what MIDI looks like in Ableton live. The main window shows MIDI sequence with the instrument programmed to it (on the bottom left). The top window shows the recording of the MIDI with the audio attached to it.

It’s a very strange concept for me to fully wrap my head around, but after practicing and playing around with different sounds and instruments, it starts to make more sense. It opens up a whole world out there for a single person to create music. Someone can create a whole symphony orchestra without having to physically record it! (which is a good and bad thing, but a discussion for another time!)

My challenge to MIDI and I guess electronic music in general is, what can separate you from the rest of the millions of people out there creating music on the same software that you use? What makes one artists electronic music stand out and become popular over someone else? The first thought that comes to my mind is; simple can be more effective. When deconstructing a song, sometimes you realise that it is a lot simpler than you initially thought. Who is to say that this is the key to creating unique music the same way everyone else does? However, sometimes the complexity of a piece of music is what makes it unique as well. I'm hoping to understand it more as I learn more about it.

I’m really looking forward to exploring electronic music more in the coming weeks and am looking forward in sharing my journey in electronic music on this blog!