Live MIDI Quality?

Christopher Walken · Post by **Christopher Walken** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:27 pm

Is it just me, or does live sound totally inferior to other DAWs when you play lots of MIDI notes? When I turn up the MIDI amount on all of my tracks and the signal begins to clip it sounds dull and muddy. I've heard that when you really push the MIDI hard in Live the summing gets totally whacky and your mix sucks. Is this true? I have compared MIDI between Pro Tools, Ableton, Logic, Cakewalk, Sonar, Reason, Fruityloops, Sibelius and Metallica and the MIDI always sounds a bit off in Live.

Is there anything true with this or am I just trippin'?

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:57 pm

the midi on my behringer sounds much clearer and crisper in the high to low high mids
it is also both Warm and Phat

Please ableton, make your midi warm and phat. Better midi summing like the pro's tool.

deva · Post by **deva** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:37 pm

the midi on my OB-8 sounds way better than Live

Heinz Graaf · Post by **Heinz Graaf** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:43 pm

deva wrote:the midi on my OB-8 sounds way better than Live

truth is that your old Z1 has way more advanced midi features than a 2007 program called Live.

Christopher Walken · Post by **Christopher Walken** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:38 pm

Last night (After a day of shooting my latest film) I played an all MIDI show with my MPC. I couldn't really tell the difference but some audiophiles in the crowd told me that the dynamic range and freq response on the MPC's MIDI was much better than Live.

Maybe someone wants to do a comparison test?

Heinz Graaf · Post by **Heinz Graaf** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:43 pm

the dynamic range of midi? dude....

krank · Post by **krank** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:27 pm

Heinz Graaf wrote:the dynamic range of midi? dude....

You know, he's not just any 'dude'. It's Christopher Walken.

cosmosuave · Post by **cosmosuave** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:49 pm

Christopher Walken wrote:Last night (After a day of shooting my latest film) I played an all MIDI show with my MPC. I couldn't really tell the difference but some audiophiles in the crowd told me that the dynamic range and freq response on the MPC's MIDI was much better than Live.

Maybe someone wants to do a comparison test?

posssu · Post by **posssu** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:06 am

I tried to add the same midi data to two tracks and added the Utility->Invert phase and I didn't get silence. Does this mean my midi tracks are warped? I didn't even change the tempo?!! Does Live mess around with the midi quality even when the tempo is unchanged? My midi clips are in Complex mode.

forge · Post by **forge** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:16 am

but did you try it on a mac or a pc

I think you'll find MIDI sounds far warmer if you stick it through a valve compressor then load it onto a mac

then what you have to do is burn it to a CD

then once the CD is burned you stick it in the toaster for a couple of cycles

BAM! MIDI warm as apple pie

nuperspective · Post by **nuperspective** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:23 am

cosmosuave wrote:
Christopher Walken wrote:Last night (After a day of shooting my latest film) I played an all MIDI show with my MPC. I couldn't really tell the difference but some audiophiles in the crowd told me that the dynamic range and freq response on the MPC's MIDI was much better than Live.

Maybe someone wants to do a comparison test?

CLASSIC

this time i wanna feel it!

LDT · Post by **LDT** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:55 pm

What may be tricking you guys, is the fact that midi cables are directional. This may not be generally accepted, but it is no less true. It springs from the production method of copper cables: The cables are drawn in one direction causing the molecules to to end up in a directional specific way. Unfortunately the cable manufacturers are at best unclear about the directional properties of midi cables, so what you should do, is to set up a simple a/b test of every midi cable in your studio.
It is really simple: Send some dynamic full range midi notes through the cable and listen. Then reverse the cable and send the same notes (be sure to use a sequencer for this). In a proper listening environment it should be easy to distinguish the right direction for a given cable.

If you dont do this, you will be stuck with unpredictable sound quality. One day you will be happy with the sound, and another day you will think that something is missing, but you dont know what. So like Christopher Walken you blame it on the software or the weather or whatever. So do everybody a favor and test those midi cables. (Oh, this may be obvious but anyway: Remember to CLEARLY mark each cable after the test).

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 5:18 pm

you're talkin to my guy all wrong!
it's the wrong tone

do it again and i'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron

tell me this... does your mother sew?

boom!

get her to sew that!

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 5:45 pm

Guys, I already compared the midi from Live with SX, and they were bit for bit identical.

dj superflat · Post by **dj superflat** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 7:04 pm

i love that heinz didn't get that the comments re midi quality were ironical (shows how reliable you should consider his comments in the audio thread).