What is MIDI?

Musical Instrument Digital Interface or MIDI is a communication protocol and file format dedicated to music, and used for communication between electronic instruments, controllers, sequencers, and music software.

Why use MIDI melodies?

Midi files will allow you to get creative ideas for your productions.
By the way,

You may be in one of the following situations :

You have difficulty in starting to compose your songs because you can't find melodies that match you, which blocks you from composing the rest of your songs.

You are a seasoned producer and you build dynamic and complete drum patterns but you can't find melodies to go with it. It's time consuming and doesn't quite live up to the expectations.

Or maybe you are afraid to use MIDI files for fear of not having the rights to use it in its current state and for another producer to find out.

Now you should know that all this is normal, all producers go through this state at some point.
To give you an idea, many producers use MIDI files in their productions. Whether it's to leave them untouched and add your own instrument over them or to modify them to your liking.
Here are some examples of well-known music used with MIDI files.

How can I get hold of MIDI files and how can I use them?

‍This is what we will discover in this article.

I) Getting MIDI files.

To get MIDI files, you just have to buy packs containing these files, there are free packs with a few melody samples and then there are paid packs where you will find entire collections.

Each pack can contain several styles of melodies of its own, a style for example techno melodies, classical chords or trap melodies and many others.

To provide you with MIDI files, I suggest you use free and paid packs.

Here is the link of the pack : "Exhale Techno."

You can also get them with a Splice subscription or on other sites offering this type of pack.

II) Install the pack on your DAW.

To do this, simply place your MIDI files in the soundbank of your DAW.

‍

III) How to use it?

First of all you must have VST or synthesizer providing you sounds you like. My advice is to have 2 or 3 versatile synths that you know well.

If you're looking for VST ideas with great sounds I'll redirect you to an article 10 Best Free VST Plugins to produce techno and 10 Best VST Plugins to produce techno.

Once you have a sound you like you just have to drag and drop the midi file into your DAW.

For example on Fl studio you will have this.

IV) How to modify the MIDI files?

• Play on the key, you just have to change the scale of the melody for example if you use a midi file in Cmin you can change it in Dmin. However, you have to be careful and change some notes because some notes will be out Key and it will sound very bad. To avoid this, either you have an absolute ear or you can use the patch note of your software.

• Modify the notes according to the scale of the note. Go to the note route of your software for those who are on Fl studio here is the procedure. Then you will have the notes which sound correctly with the chosen scale, for this example they are the notes in light grey. Have fun moving them around and finding melodies that match you.

• Playing with velocity. Velocity includes the ADSR (Attack decay sustain realese). These 4 elements will allow you to modify the impact of your melodies. We could go into more detail but this deserves a whole article. You can find a lot of information on this subject in this video

What you need to remember.

This is it. Here we are. I've explained how you can use Midi files and make them your own to create new melodies from. I know that sometimes we put barriers to ourselves to use this kind of file for fear of using a sound that does not belong to us.

The thing to remember about this type of file is that it mainly helps to find inspiration for the rest of your track.

Often finding a melody will unlock the production of your tracks.

This is why many producers use these files to create.

If you want to practice using midi files, I can offer you a pack with 50 midi melodies to use freely in your productions.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me by Mail or on Instagram!