Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover how to record and edit MIDI in Tracktion 7.
We’ll do this manually with the piano roll, as well as with a MIDI controller.
We’ll also talk about how we can add our own virtual instruments to Tracktion 7 so
we can expand the capabilities of this program.
Before starting this tutorial, just make sure you’ve checked out the previous videos in
this series.
Similar to our previous tutorial, MIDI tracks are added and removed just like audio tracks.
Tracktion 7 doesn’t consider them to be different, it just matters what input we select
on the track, whether we add a MIDI clip, and if the track is connected to a virtual
instrument.
Now we’ll add our MIDI controller.
First go to Settings at the top and switch to MIDI Devices.
We’ll need to enable the input for our MIDI controller.
For this tutorial, I’m using an Akai MPD218.
This MIDI controller has 16 drum pads that make it great for percussion, and I’ll leave
a link to them in the video description down below so you can check them out for yourself.
When that’s done, you should be able to see the keyboard keys light up at the bottom
when you press the note on your MIDI controller.
Now that the MIDI Device is enabled, select the MIDI controller under the track input.
After that, we should add a MIDI instrument.
Go to settings and select Plugins.
Click Scanning and Sorting and select Scan for new or updated VST plugins.
Then use the plus button to add a scan path to wherever your instrument plugins are stored
on the computer.
Once that’s done, press Scan.
Now go back to the project and drag the plus button at the top right onto the right side
of the track.
This will allow us to add the instrument.
Then a dropdown will open and allow us to choose our virtual instrument.
With the virtual instrument configured and the MIDI controller added to our track, we’ll
be able to hear the notes in real-time as we hit buttons on the controller.
If you experience any latency, such as pops or clicks when you do this, make sure you
have your audio interface set to ASIO mode and adjust the buffer size accordingly.
Now we can arm the track for recording by pressing the red button on the track.
Then press the record button on the transport.
Another way we can input MIDI in Tracktion 7 is by adding notes with the piano roll.
We can do this after we’ve recording a clip with a MIDI instrument, or by dragging the
new clip button onto the track and selecting to create a new MIDI clip.
Then we can drag the ends of the clip to lengthen it to however long we need.
If we’ll be creating a loop instead, we can trim it to the length of the loop, write
out our MIDI and go to the bottom section and select Loop This Clip.
We can also trim the clip to length, then press the button that looks like an L in a
box at the top of the clip to enable looping.
With looping enabled, drag the ends of the clip to extend this.
It’s really important that the clip ends are trimmed before pressing the loop button
to make sure that the timing is correct.
Once we have our clip to the right length, we need to zoom in on it.
We can drag the bottom of the track to extend it vertically.
Then move our mouse over a blank section of the track and use the scroll wheel to zoom
horizontally.
The piano roll MIDI editor has 4 mouse modes we can use.
The first is select, which allows us to click on notes to edit them, and select a group
of notes to edit them together by clicking and dragging.
We can also use this to select a bunch of notes and delete them all at once.
Next is the draw tool to draw individual notes.
Then we have an eraser tool to quickly remove notes, and a line tool to add a bunch of notes
all at once.
I’ll usually edit MIDI in draw mode.
To draw a note, just click on the piano roll at the time and note pitch that you want.
You should do this with snapping enabled for the project.
Then you can adjust the length of your note by clicking and dragging the ends of it.
You can also change the default note length under the length or len section at the top
of the clip.
At the top of the clip, we can press the velocity button to bring up the velocity section underneath.
With the mouse in select mode, we can drag the bars up and down to change the velocity
of each note.
If there are multiple overlapping notes, clicking the note on the piano roll gives it priority
and we can adjust both of the velocities individually.
We can also adjust the velocity of the note by selecting it and changing the velocity
bar in the bottom panel.
Another thing we can do with our MIDI notes after recording or inputting them is transposing.
This allows us to change the pitch of all the notes at once.
First select all the notes with the select tool.
Then either drag them all up or down, or use the transpose tool in the bottom section.
The last thing we should cover with MIDI is quantization.
When recording with a MIDI instrument, the timing isn’t always perfect.
Quantization allows these notes to be shifted back onto the grid so they’re perfectly
in time.
To quantize the notes, use the select tool and select a group of them.
Then use the quantise menu at the bottom and quantize the start times.
It’s possible to quantize to different time resolutions.
Fine time resolutions won’t make as much of a change, but a coarse time resolution
can sometimes cause the note to snap in the wrong direction if it’s shifted too far
that way.
The software has no way of knowing which way to shift the notes, it just snaps to the closest
point on the grid, so make sure you listen back carefully after doing this.
Thanks for checking out this video on MIDI recording and editing in Tracktion 7.
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