Today, we're going to record some music in Windows using a simple MIDI controller
keyboard. In this video, I'll use a low-cost Alesis VMini as my controller
and Presonus' Studio One 4 as my recording software. In addition to the
basics of setting up the keyboard with the software, I'll show you how to set up
the knobs to control certain aspects of the sound. For the purposes of this
tutorial, you can essentially use any USB-MIDI controller...
like the Akai MPK Mini series...
the M-Audio Keystation...
the Nektar Impact...
the Novation Launchkey...
the MIDIplus AKM series...
or any model that uses the USB port to send MIDI signals to the computer.
As for the digital audio workstation, or DAW, software, you'll typically receive a
free version with the MIDI controller that you purchase, though it may have
limited capabilities. Some common ones are Pro Tools by Avid, FL Studio by Image
Line, and Ableton Live. I've mentioned that I'm using a USB-MIDI controller - the
Alesis VMini - which means all you need is a USB A-to-B cable. If you have a
MIDI controller or keyboard without USB, you'll likely see a set of two or three
MIDI ports on the back, labeled MIDI In, Out, and sometimes Through. If this is the
type of keyboard that you have, you'll need a MIDI adapter that looks like this,
where you have five-pin DIN connectors on one side of the cable, and a
regular USB-A connector on the other - OR - you'll need a MIDI interface like this
Scarlett Focusrite 2i4. These let you connect a regular MIDI cable
between the keyboard and the computer. I'll cover these types of MIDI keyboards
and adapters in a future video.
Today, we'll use the Alesis VMini. This is a
MIDI controller, which means that it doesn't actually generate any sound.
Instead, it sends MIDI signals to the DAW software, which then plays the sounds via
an instrument plug-in. The controller features 25 mini-sized
velocity-sensitive keys, octave up and down buttons, and a set of four buttons
to control modulation and sustain. In the middle are four pads which give you the
ability to play drum instruments. Unfortunately, the pads are not
assignable, but they're already mapped to the general MIDI standards of bass
drum, snare, hi-hat, and crash. On the right are four user-assignable knobs, which
allow you to control parameters of the sound or the volume. I'll show you how to
map these later on.
The first thing you'll want to do is take the USB A-to-B
cable, plug the B-side into the controller, and then take the A-side and
plug it into a USB port of the computer. With Windows 10,
it's simply plug-and-play, and doesn't require any additional drivers. So it
should automatically detect it, as shown here. Next, let's launch Studio One. I'm
showing you a time-limited demo version of the
software, but functionally, it's the same as the full version. On the welcome screen,
you'll see a link to Configure External Devices. After you click on that link,
you'll want to hit the Add button to define the VMini as a keyboard. On the
left, you'll see a list of keyboards that are supported out-of-the-box. But
unfortunately, the VMini isn't one of them, nor does it list any Alesis device -
which is fine because we can add it as a custom device. If you're not using the
VMini and you see your keyboard listed, go ahead and select it, because that'll give
you all of the default mappings for any assignable knobs, buttons, or pads it may
have. In my case, I'm simply going to enter a new keyboard, as seen here. Let's type
Alesis as the Manufacturer, and then VMini as the Device Name. By default, all
16 MIDI channels are selected, which is fine when you have one device - but when
you have multiple instruments going to the same computer, you'd probably want to
assign each device a separate MIDI channel. Since we only have one, we'll
leave it as default. In the Receive From drop-down, you'll want to set it to VMini.
Next, you can filter out any MIDI data that you don't want to transmit to
the computer, but generally, you won't want to change these because you want
the computer to be able to capture all the MIDI data coming from the controller.
So we'll leave these alone. The Send To drop-down can be left blank because
Studio One has no need to send data back to the VMini. If you had other external
MIDI instruments or sound generators you might have a need for this but for our
simple case, we can leave it blank. Next, the Split Channel option is useful
when you have multiple MIDI controllers, and multiple tracks where each track is
assigned to its own MIDI channel - but we won't need that.
Finally, the VMini will be our one and only controller, so we'll set it as the
Default Instrument Input. Let's click OK to close the dialog box. And that's
really all you need if you want a basic MIDI controller to record your music.
I'll close out the options dialog and choose the Create a New Song option,
where I'll accept the defaults for the song definition. This is our main
workspace for recording MIDI. Let's open our Instruments panel on the right side,
and drag the Impact drum module into the main window, so we create a track. I'll
select one of the drum kits - it doesn't matter which - and I'll start
playing the drums with the pads. You can see that they're mapped to the bass drum,
snare, hi-hat, and crash. But you're not limited to the pads - you can use the keys
as well. If we set it to one octave lower, the C, D, F sharp, and B keys will
basically play the same notes as the pads, but you also have the option of
playing any of the other percussion sounds in the kit using the keyboard.
To show you the next demonstration, I'm going to load a song that I've
pre-recorded before I started capturing this video.
This is a song that I composed with a 5/4 time signature.
It has a little bit of swing to it... and I've recorded just a few bars for this demo. As you can
see, I've already laid down the tracks for the bass and the drums, and I'm now
going to record a few chords on top. I'll choose a Presence instrument, select
keyboards, and look for a nice piano patch with a little bite to it - like this
rock piano. I'll go ahead and drag it into the main area to create a new track,
which will pop up the instrument itself, where I can control all aspects of this
patch. Let's close it out - and since it's already armed to record, let's start.
You can see at the top here I've already reduced the size of the loop
so that I only record four measures.
I've finished playing, so I'll hit stop.
Let's reset to the beginning of the loop and play back the recording, and you can hear
the track that I just recorded. So far I've shown you the basic ability to use
the keyboard as an input. Now if all you need is the ability to record notes, you
can stop the video here, but if you want to do more, keep watching.
If we take a look at the VMini, we've seen that we can play the notes not only from the
keyboard but from the pads as well. But what about the knobs? Let's find out how
we can leverage the assignability of the four knobs on the VMini. To confirm
the MIDI data being transmitted from the VMini to the software,
let's select View from the menu, and click on MIDI Monitor, where we can see
what MIDI events are being transmitted. Notice that each press on the keyboard
and pad has a corresponding Note On and Note Off, as well as a Velocity number
between 0 and 127 in the description.
However, the knobs transmit a continuous stream of MIDI data. This is
for the first knob, which is labeled Control 14... and here's the second knob,
labeled Control 15. Let's close this dialog and see how we can take advantage
of the knobs. What I'd like to do is change the actual sound of the track I
just recorded by altering its filter cutoff. The piano isn't the best example
because it's based on a sample, so I'll choose something from
the Mai Tai instrument, which is more like your traditional synthesizer. I'll open up the
string section and select something that responds more prominently to a filter
cutoff change - like Choral Strings. After dragging it onto the previous Piano
track, I'll choose to Replace it. And now, let me go to the beginning of the loop
and play it with the new sound.
I have my cursor on the virtual filter cutoff knob,
where I can use my mouse to dial it up and down. So what I'll do is assign the
first physical knob on the VMini to the virtual knob that you see here. To do
that, we'll need to first visit the Mix tab on the lower right hand corner, then
navigate to the External tab on the far left, which exposes the external device
panel here. After pulling down the VMini options and selecting Edit, a dialog box
will appear, where I'll teach Studio One to learn the knobs on the VMini. Let's
click on MIDI Learn, and then physically turn the knobs on the keyboard. As I turn
each knob, you'll see the virtual equivalent pop into existence in the
dialog box... and those are knobs 1 to 4. You can see that the pads are not
assignable - and let's try the other buttons. The octave buttons aren't assignable...
but the Mod and Sustain keys are - as CC 1 and CC 64, so you could conceivably
assign control to those buttons. But in this tutorial, we're going to focus on the
first knob, which is CC 14. Let me move this aside... and go back to my instrument.
Again, here's the filter cutoff knob that I want to control. What you'll want to do
is click on this little gear icon, which exposes the virtual and physical knob
that you want to bind together. Since the first physical knob is the last thing I
touched on the VMini, that will show up automatically here. Next, let's move over
to the virtual knob, right click on it, and select Assign Cutoff to Control 1
on VMini. That links the two knobs together. In fact, when I start twisting
the knob on the VMini, you'll now see the virtual knob turning as well. Let's
play the loop and see the knob in action.
As you can see, my fingers are modifying the sound as it's playing, but it isn't
really recording anything yet.
I'll go ahead and stop the playback. To actually
record the MIDI data, you'll need to right-click the knob and select the Edit
Automation Cutoff option in the menu. What that will do is allow you to record
the knob movement right onto the track. For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll
just overlay the cutoff onto the notes. You'll need to click on this small
drop-down box to access the operations that you can assign to the automation
track. I'll go ahead and select Touch... which basically places it into a type of
record mode. Let's go ahead and hit the record button...
and wait for the loop to continue to the end...
and then I'll go ahead and adjust the knob.
You can actually see the curves being recorded in the track as I turn the knob
over the four bars.
I'll go ahead and hit stop...
and revert the Automation Mode back to Auto...
and reset the Display back to default. Now you can see the filter
cutoff curve more clearly in the track.
I'll go ahead and restart the loop...
where not only the note data is played back, but the filter information is as well.
What else can you control?
Basically, anywhere you right-click and see an
option to Assign to a Control, you can map that to the VMini - whether it's on a
VST instrument, or even on the mixer, where you can assign volume sliders and pan controls.
I hope you enjoyed - Thanks for watching!