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Sequencing vs playing/recording
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I'm curious: how many of you guys create music hardly ever touching real instruments or any kinds of MIDI controllers (keys, pads, etc.) ? Using just a piano roll in your favorite DAW, a tracker, other software and/or hardware sequencers
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I do a combination: I layer and loop parts, I edit piano rolls (usually cleaning them up) and shift around arrangements all in DAWs etc.
However, being a "guitarist who knows how to play keyboard" and having been in a band where we played everything live I sort of take pride in playing things "for real".
For that reason I always have at least one track with a major instrument on my tunes where I play it (either keyboard or guitar) all the way through the tune. If I miss something, or play a dud, I re-take it until I've nailed it. It sort of becomes my "yeah, I know how to play that, it isn't all programmed..." thing, but it is solely for the personal reason mentioned above.
Sound-wise it doesn't add/do anything, and it would probably cut quite some frustration out of my creation process if I relaxed it a bit, but still, the pride after having done a tune with a complex passage on a real instrument is quite nice too.
That is just how I do it. There is no right or wrong though. Whatever makes people happy, and ideally sounds good too.
I always have a keyboard used as a controller to input midi, If i can i try to use sequencers which can also be controlled by the keyboard. Arturia's sequencers are excellent for this. On ios I still like to use the GUI keyboard as an input device. I don't move the midi notes around with mouse or touch screen. So I can play normal keyboard and sequencer at the same time.
Like @hellquist I take pride in 'performing' a passage or track, but I'm a rubbish keyboardist. I do both, play it in via midi keyboard and play it in via the iPad screen. I actually play better on screen.
It doesn't matter that much, because I end up quantizing the crap out of it anyhow. hehe
I’m mostly mobile on the commute or couch so it is mainly glass tapping for me.
Personally I simply cannot write anything by drawing notes in a piano roll grid, I have to actually play. However I'm perfectly happy playing virtual keys or pads, that works fine for me, you obviously lose a lot of expression without the velocity sensitivity of real keys or pads but I can live with that.
Sequenced stuff always sounds crap when I try to do it by drawing in notes, so I usually just play the thing live, and then loop it.
As I like to do things the hard way, I typically compose chords and melodies by playing them live, then turn around and program in what I just played as I'm never content with my own precision and I have an irrational aversion to quantization.
I can play instruments pretty well, but I use the onscreen instruments in GarageBand most the time.
Sequencing can get boring fast
I've never before composed on a piano roll as much as this year, although I have keyboards with great and very playable keybeds.
All expressive content on my channel was made using just a finger/stylus on the glass and editing MIDI notes extensively-
YouTube.com/MobileMusic
I have some plans for using the keyboard in my videos soon.
I play, the sequencing usually screws up my performance, so I have to then figure how to record/ sequence the part to get it the way I want
Oh wow, I didn't realize you could actually play notes on keyboards and stuff. This is a game changer. I love this forum!
I play live in real time, one line or riff at a time, into Gadget on the iPhone on the train. This takes a very short amount of time. The other 98% of the time on that particular motif or passage is spent shunting the notes around into better timing or better frequency places. Sometimes it ends up back exactly where I played it, in which case I’ll probably just undo it all and play it again and move on, other times I’ve mutated it into something much more interesting (although it must still be ‘playable’ in case I ever have to for real, in the real world).
In 2018 I had my ROLI square spongy thingy sitting on one knee and I’d enter lines or passages through that, which was also quite a good way of doing it (I had it turned 180° to have the high frequencies facing closer to me, and going in the correct direction leftwards, which felt far more normal and natural than the backwards way it defaults to). This year I didn’t bother with it. Just direct playing into Gadget.
I play guitar, fiddle, and keys.
I also like to use generative apps like Senode, Rozeta Suite, etc. as well as "normal" sequencers.
Each approach to creating and recording music generates different results and I like that.
I’m all for getting expression in music so play stuff and record in real time whenever possible, usually from a controller but playing on glass can also be good, especially with expressive interfaces such as Geoshred for example.
I will ask my bots about their preferences and come back with an answer.
Rarely sequence and avoid quantization.
Once in a blue moon I edit MIDI notes that were recorded from live playing.
The Sensel Morph is my controller of choice, but I also play and record drums/percussion, bass, guitar, and a few other instruments.
Model15, Samplr, and ThumbJam are probably the most expressive apps I've ever played with just the touchscreen input, for most apps I use the Morph though.
Generally, I'm on team "capture live playing and edit as needed". For some types of stuff (berlin school or motorik, for instance), it's more sequencers-as-generators and involve very little live 'instrument' playing for the basic parts.
I have not yet been able to translate my years of singing into notes on the piano or midi. I usually record audio and plink it out, which is painful.
Generative apps I love because I can iterate or be inspired, record the midi and adjust as wanted.
Combination of both for me. Run multiple sequences on hardware monosynths and more often than not manually play ios polysynths all at same time. I don’t tend to record or multitrack although I have the option - l just love jamming.