Sequencing software has expanded dramatically in recent years, adding new features in every version, such as the capacity to notate musical scores, animated piano keyboards, guitar images, song-set players that offer a shuffle option, mixer displays, etc.

A most important advance is the increased convenience of editing MIDI files. One can now approach the task with such tools as an Event List, a Piano Roll display, a notated score, Controller views, a Mixer window, and other implements. The process of fine-tuning, tweaking, adjusting, or polishing a MIDI file applies whether one plans simply to listen to the recording at home, or to use the file as accompaniment to a live performance. Moreover, the editing techniques apply equally to popular music (rock, jazz, ethnic, blues, country) and to so-called “classical” music (string quartets, concertos, and the like).

When a MIDI recording is well done, we hear a chorus of praise. Words like “professional,” “exciting,” “moving,” “tender.” When it's sub-par, look out! Out come the pejoratives: “amateur,” “mechanical,” “predictable”. Or the worst of all: “Electronic!”

Just like a digital recording on a compact disc, an effective MIDI recording is a delight to listen to. The purity of a flute's cascading notes in Bach's Suite for Flute. A clean, evenly-played arpeggio in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 in F# minor. The proper rhythmic style and tempo in a recording of Habanera from Carmen. A tasteful, inventive drum solo in a soul-rock recording. A skillful improvisation pattern by a jazz musician playing Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Rogers and Hart. A cheerful, lilting interpretation of a country-western tune. All pleasurable for many reasons, one of which is authenticity.

Mediocrity, on the other hand, is somewhat hard to take, at least for someone who recognizes good musicianship.

What makes a good performance? Obviously, a good musician. Someone who can lay down nice musical sounds in real-time. Someone whose playing reflects talent, training, experience, skill, sensitivity, and imagination. But, having said this, one can, to a degree, improve the quality of MIDI recordings, in part by reducing or modifying those MIDI events that make us blush. Like multi-struck notes. Awkward hesitations. Banal improvisation. Abrupt endings.

And so we set about using the sequencer for fine-tuning, altering, refashioning... So the jazz tunes swing a little more. And the country ballads have more poignancy. And the classical melodies sing a little better. And the music--any kind of music--sounds nicer. The methodology is fairly simple for one familiar with the building-blocks, the elements of a piece of music: the instruments themselves, tempo, volume, duration of notes, harmony, expression...

When you power up a software sequencing program, chances are that the default display will be a track listing. Let's say that you have downloaded a MIDI file from a network library, or from an Internet archive. To illustrate: a Bach Brandenburg Concerto with violins, recorders, a viola, cello, harpsichord, and a bass. The first thing you will probably do will be to load the file into the sequencer, then listen to the music. Which is fine. Some sequencers have a song-view window, where you can peek at the whole recording.

The point is that now is the time to consider the totality of the recording. The forest, rather than the trees. Are the instruments all alive and sounding? Do the patches resemble the instrumentation you expected? Does a particular track sound weak? Too loud? Is there a “tinny” sound? A “mechanical” sound? Do you hear any extraneous noises? An overall impression.

Having made a preliminary judgment, you are now allowed to dust off your S. Holmes' magnifying glass. You're ready to launch the rigorous analysis, using the wonderful features of the sequencer: the Event List with its myriad details, the tempo box, the MIDI Menu and its goodies, the Piano Roll, the Score, the Mixer, those ingenious controller displays. You're equipped to raise questions about the patch selection; the tempo of the music; the velocity at which an instrument has been recorded; whether the volume is high, low, or just right; whether some of the notes are too abrupt, or linger too long; whether the instruments are in balance; whether the melody can be heard clearly; whether the harmony is rich or sterile; the pitch setting; the grace of percussion sounds; the correctness of style choice; the presence, or absence, of an expressive performance.

Copyright © 1995 Eugene A. Confrey, PhD. All rights reserved.