Chapter 2. Get real with MIDI

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As part of a college assignment, Sara has been sequencing classical music, a string quartet, with Logic. She has played all the parts correctly from her MIDI keyboard, but for some reason, the overall result is less than convincing. The instruments just don't sound realistic.

This is a common scenario. Of course it's almost impossible to re-create the performance of a real violinist, or any other instrumentalist, but a pretty convincing job can be made of it if we approach things the right way. We may not be able to fool musicians but we can certainly produce something worthy enough for many a multimedia project. However, there is much to learn to achieve a good result.

So how do we transform our Logic projects into sounding like the London Philharmonic Orchestra or, for that matter, Led Zeppelin? By using our imagination , of course. Whether you have a top of the range sound module or just a humble Sound Blaster Audigy card, you'll not get far without it.

Forget the keyboard and concentrate on the virtual instrument you are recording. If it's a violin, imagine yourself actually playing it. Be that violinist. You are bowing those short rhythmic stop notes, those long flowing melodies that string sections are so good at. The same applies to any instrument. Try to get inside the mind of your virtual musician. Before you can do this confidently, you will have to spend time listening.

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