Samples vs Midi

Alex Turovski

New member
Hey!


I'm relatively new to music production and new to this forum. So please, if there's already a discussion on my topic don't throw rotten tomatoes :)


I was wondering (when watching all those different production tutorials) why do so many producers prefer samples over Midi? For drums for example.


Personally, I find it much more flexible to use Midi as u can change the tonality of each note very quickly and reprogram the beat without the need to reposition the samples across your whole project. I use Logic Pro X as my DAW.


Maybe there are other benefits (like sound quality or processing) that I'm just not aware of as a newbie?
 
First of all, you can have both samples and midi in a track, up to your own preference.

Many people like samples cause they lack the ability to make, drums for example, theirself. It's easier to pick something that's basically already done than put effort into making your own. I do use both in my tracks but my samples always come from my own plays. From a management point of view, samples are just required some adaption to your "sound" and some positioning. With midi you have to quantitize, automate, velocity, legato, glides etc... but you can use both combined with a sample as sound source..
Maybe your question is more "Why samples over self made?" Am i right?

Hope I made myself clear ^^

PS: Logic isnt really the best daw to work with midi
 
Moonboi, Thank you for your reply!

Yes, it is very clear, but I have to disagree with
they lack the ability to make, drums for example, theirself

I've watched some Digital Labz tutorials where known producers compose a melody of create a bass sound the prefer with midi, then convert to audio and continue working with audio rather than midi.
That's why I get a feeling that I'm missing something when working with midi.
 
Moonboi, Thank you for your reply!

Yes, it is very clear, but I have to disagree with


I've watched some Digital Labz tutorials where known producers compose a melody of create a bass sound the prefer with midi, then convert to audio and continue working with audio rather than midi.
That's why I get a feeling that I'm missing something when working with midi.
Ill try to explain what i know since im a begginer myself, but there are a few things with samples you can do that you cant with midi, like saving cpu usage (for all of those serum users), using them in other songs, resampling, cutting the parts you like and then wipe off the rest (which can be done with automation but normally is faster doing this ((e.g. you create some random automation and you only like one bit). im sure there's more reasons but thats all i can come up with
 
One gives you complete and total control over the composition and one is just something you play back at various speeds and pitches that is stagnated as a file.
 
uuuhhh... Weird question?

MIDI is just a control message sent to originally just hardware, but nowadays obviously VST effects and instruments as well.
A sample is just a pre-recorded sound source, a reproductive sound source then, as opposed to the oscillators in an analog synth which are a generative sound source.
Both can be triggered and manipulated by MIDI, which is just a protocol for that. Like WAV or MP3 is a way of transmitting recorded sounds.

But those lines are completely blurred, and have been for a long time:
-Take a wavetable synthesizer that uses samples as oscillators. Vintage drum machines that were sample based, or hybrids like the TR-909.
That stuff has been around since the 80s.
-What to make of any synth that's a digital plug-in?
-Or granular synthesis? Again, using samples as a generative source, but at a much more euh.. granular level. Here it becomes impossible to tell,
and irrelevant, whether it's sampling or synthesis. If you're using it to stretch a sample, then it's more like sampling, but if you're using the grains
of the sample in completely different ways, it's more like synthesis.

MIDI is still just a communication protocol. Like suppose you load a mess of drum samples into Battery to make a track. You'll be triggering those
samples with MIDI notes. The sounds it uses are all samples, but they can be samples of anything.... One thing I like to do is make a bunch of drum sounds with a synthesizer and just
save them out separately for later use and further manipulation. There's things you can do with audio-editing you can't do with MIDI and vice versa. The huge building pads at the end of my last track
could only be done with a synth driven by MIDI. It's same notes over and over, but the changes in the sound are achieved by playing with the (amazing) filters on my synth which I actually recorded in by hand.
But then, since it's coming from outside hardware I had to record it to a wav file.. which in essence is just a very long sample sitting in my library now.. ready to be used as such.

So... summing up: interpreting your question as either 'samples vs. synthesizing drums' or 'automating MIDI vs. Audio-editing'... I say, where do you draw the lines? Can you even tell the difference?
Like in my last track, there's samples and synthesis going on in equal measures, but which is which? Just the kick alone is a combination of 3 sounds, 2 came from Maschine's Drumsynth, the other was a sample from a library.
I recorded those together and treated them as one from there on. So it's a sample, from a virtual synthesizer though... and it's never looped, so every single kick you hear is triggered by a single MIDI note.
Just for the crazy, I then took that kick and stretched the hell out of it, combined it with synth sounds and so it also forms the basis for that clicky bass sound going on throughout.
There's no way you can tell, as a listener, how that all fits together.

The only reason to make one choice over the other, is a creative decision. I want to achieve this sound, and this is the easiest or nicest way to get it. I always place results over process.
Like maybe a reason to grab the hardware TR-808 over samples, even though it's not as convenient, is because the TR's circuits make it slightly random... every clap is gonna come out ever so slightly different.
If I was building a minimal techno track and I want that raw clap to be a prominent fixture, then that slight randomness is perfect because it'll avoid that static, programmed repetition and just sound more lively.
If I was using it as part of giant drumkit in this really epic, massive sounding track with drums everywhere... then who gives a fuck about "But but.. it's a real hardware 808!!!"?
 
^Excellent post. I think the original question might've meant something a bit different than what "samples vs. MIDI" actually implies...
 
Becouse its much simple to develop the melody from sample

is it? My experience is the exact opposite. Play MIDI part.. then completely change the sound as it plays back, turn it into chords, add in a sequencer to add melodies and variations.. swap out the sound source entirely,
pitch it up down. Run a sample into a effect like a pitch matched comb filter and make your own melodies on top of it. Send MIDI messages to my Giant Killler Death-Robot 2000 XXL MKII to make it engage and destroy all opposition.

Anything goes really.
 
Its always good to know when and what to use samples for and the same for MIDI instruments. Personally I use samples for my kicks, snares, crashes, vocals, and risers/downers, etc. I use my MIDI instruments for my synths, basses, hi hats/any other VI percussions that aren't kicks, snares, or crashes.
Honestly its all personal preference, and what you feel comfortable using. Everyone uses samples and MIDI differently. Hope this helped. :cheers:
 
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