Playing vs Programming
Without question, If I have one musical regret, it would easily be not continuing my piano studies as a child. Although I moved over to the guitar at around age 10, and was happy to do so - these days, I find myself wishing more and more that I had some really decent piano skills to fall back on when producing. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I can’t play at all. But what I am saying is that I usually can’t play what I hear in my head most of the time.
If I’ve been hired to work with an artist or band, then of course I can rely on session players or band members - and thankfully I’ve had the great pleasure of working with some phenomenal musicians. If I ask for different voicing’s they can accommodate on the fly, and there’s nothing more amazing than working with top notch talent. But if I’m producing - sometimes I may have to have “something” laid out in advance.. A basic idea that will be replaced after the fact by someone much more capable.
So what does this mean in terms of being a producer? Well, essentially when I can play the part, I will always try to perform it, even if it takes 2 separate passes (Right Hand / Left Hand) - then clean things up via editing. But when I cannot perform what I hear in my head, (or simply don’t have a keyboard controller available) I pull out my “Cheat Sheets”
Studio One Note FX
This is where Note FX can come in handy. Whether it’s a super simple Arpeggiator pattern, or complex Chords. Studio One’s built in Note FX give users the ability to fully realize their creative ideas. In all honesty, the reality is that as long as you have a decent ear, and a bit of patience with editing MIDI. You can get fantastic results. And of course, the best part is, they’re built right into the program.
I think it’s worth mentioning that there are already a ton of great videos and/or articles on Studio One Note FX - all readily available via a quick search on Google. But what I thought I would do today is give a simple example of how easily Note FX can be used when producing in Studio One.
In this video, I demonstrate how to add movement to your productions using the stock Arpeggiator Note FX Plug-In in Studio One 4. Although version 4 was used in this video, this tutorial applies to Version 3 as well.
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Cheers, Marcus
