Post #2152650

2026-05-04 01:39 UTC

Picked up a couple midi cables yesterday and been DAW test tracking some synth in both audio in and midi in. I can see the degree of flexibility with midi tracking, especially with quantizing. Tried that and it’s pretty darn cool. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m more of an old school analogue audio waveform kinda person, so may just stick with that for recording. I’m totally new to messing around with synthesizers, so any ideas or tips about recording synth would be greatly appreciated. With compositions do you use midi tracks or audio? I’m kind of daunted about the concept of editing or tweaking actual midi tracks. #music #synth #synthesizer

Replies (5)

@starsickle@mastodon.social 2026-05-04 02:46

@strayhorse@c.im Hi! I'll share my own tips: Depending on your DAW, using the midi in/out plugins and audio recording can be really handy with your synth. You can also set the input plugins to output and make your synth play stuff from the DAW, which has its own merits when you want to hear it through the synth instead of through DAW plugins.

Open ##2616640
@elsemusic@musician.social 2026-05-04 04:33

@strayhorse@c.im I record MIDI and audio at the same time on adjacent tracks. My logic is that if, later, the audio proves in some way deficient, I can always edit the MIDI track and/or change the patch, then re-record the audio.

Open ##2616641
@GuitarSith@fosstodon.org 2026-05-04 05:36

@strayhorse@c.im I used audio and midi loops in the songs on In The End. I use an old Propellerheads (now Reason Studios) tool called ReCycle to slice & dice the audio files thus allowing me to alter the original. With midi files just get in there with a midi editor (most DAW’s have one) and play around with what’s there. You can also change the instrument being used to completely change what’s coming out. Plugins on either type can also totally alter the sound. Experiment, enjoy, have fun.

Open ##2616643
@amcjen@hachyderm.io 2026-05-04 06:08

@strayhorse@c.im Wait ‘til you get yer dirty mitts on MIDI effects

Open ##2616645
@jwcph@helvede.net 2026-05-04 06:11

@strayhorse@c.im I'm not doing anything remotely complex but like MIDI tracks a lot & I find it relatively easy to fiddle with it in Reaper 😁 as an example of a cool thing that's possible with MIDI, I worked out how to send MIDI from one track to another - meaning I can put a chord track down & then pipe it non-destructively into an arpeggiator and/or other synth(s) 🥰

Open ##2616646