Audio Engineering & Music Production
Course 16: USB, MIDI & Beatmatching

Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is the standard way in which we interact with music in the digital world. Think of it as the DNA of your musical performance. Without it, your ability to compose, produce and perform music in modern times would be remarkably different. In this course, you’ll use what you learn about MIDI in the Pro Tools environment and start making music!

After a brief overview of the history of MIDI controllers, you’ll learn about the different MIDI events that can be controlled, the two types of MIDI tracks in Pro Tools, and using external (keyboard, drum pads) and internal (the keyboard of your computer) to control sequencing.

You’ll also learn how to control the virtual instruments provided by Pro Tools by configuring your MIDI controller and inserting the instruments and assigning them to specific tracks. Now it’s time to start making some music by capturing and playing back a few MIDI events. You’ll see how to edit the tracks in the MIDI within a grid that visually represents the notes you captured.

Your assignment for Course 16 will be to create a short, 3-second MIDI production in Pro Tools that incorporates drum, bass, harmonic, and lead elements. This is less about the music and more about showing how you can move different ideas around a MIDI grid in Pro Tools. You’ll also upload the mix arrangement you’ve been working on.

Objectives

• What is MIDI?
• MIDI in Pro Tools
• Virtual Instruments
• Mix Assignment Upload
• MIDI Assignment
• Chapter Quiz
• Blog Entry