which midi volume values correspond to dynamic markings pp, mf etc

[Sharkman]

If you had to notate from sheet music to your sequencer, what would be the corresponding midi volume values for all the dynamic marking used in sheet music?

ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, fff ?

 

[geedubbee]

If you had to notate from sheet music to your sequencer, what would be the corresponding midi volume values for all the dynamic marking used in sheet music?

ppp, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, fff ?

There's no exact formula for it. The dynamics markings are mostly used for relative volume amounts. f is louder than mf, and ppp is much more quiet than p. "How much" more loud/quiet depends on many factors, some of which are specific to the instrument being played. In MIDI terms, this may correlate to the velocity used to trigger a note, but, not all synths or patches react to velocity input in the same, or even similar manners.

 

[lo3q]

What geedubbee said is right. It depends a lot on the synth that's playing the midi notes.

But, for what its worth, here's a table:

ppp 24
pp 44
p 54
mp 64
mf 74
f 84
ff 94
fff 114

http://net.indra.com/~cliffcan/01gloss.htm

By the way, the thing you want to control to recreate these dynamics is probably midi note velocity, not volume (midi CC 7 and 11)

 

[StrangeCat]

you can not notate from sheet music to sequencer, a sequencer does the notation wrong for input. better to play the music into the sequencer for all instrumet tracks and use a velocity controller(more humanistic)to control the velocity. Also it depends on what you are using for samples to do the dynamics.

 

[thejerz]

Dispite what has been said here, according to MIDI specs you should be using a combination of CC7 and CC11 (Volume and Expression, respectively). CC11 should be used to moderately change the level of the output, while CC7 is a rough control (to be used sparingly). These are NOT interchangable, and do different things. Velocities should be used to express how hard the instrument is being attacked. 7 & 11 are level issues.