Midi Controller Sound Quality Issues

[stephendanielson97]

Ok, I'll check that. Extreme noobie question, this might be totally unrelated, but in my sound preferences on my computer have Scarlett 2i2 selected as both my input and my output. Should the input be my internal speakers?

[Cutlerbri]

Stephen, what MIDI controller do you have? Name and model number. Is it going through the USB on your computer or is it going through MIDI on the Scarlet?

[stephendanielson97]

I have a Yamaha M08, it is hooked up to a USB directly from the instrument to my computer

[stephendanielson97]

The Scarlett is hooked up separately with another USB

[JFreak]

Audio interface and midi controller can be connected via different USB, that is not the issue. But please check what kind of MIDI velocity you are recording

[Darryl Ramm]

And what exact headphones are you using..

Music sounds lifeless and dull for lots of reasons, may be simply volume or your headphones. Or maybe the solo instrument is just that way without accompaniment/being in a mix. Or depending on what you are comparing to you may need to EQ/compress etc. stuff to sound like what you expect.

If you have not already, start by getting an known good recording of a song you like like imported into a session and get that to play back so it sounds good.

Lots of things can cause confusions here for new users. Including gain staging through Pro Tools, and what meters are showing you pre/post fader etc.

Create a master fader track and for your output and look at what the meter level is (using classic meter type) it should be well below clipping maybe say peaks at -6dBFS at most and you should turn up the output level on the interface enough so it sounds good/is at the listening level you like in your headphones. If you are not getting near that output meter level then you need to add gain/increase fader levels in other tracks feeding the output.

Once all that is working, back to worrying about an instument track.

[stephendanielson97]

I turned the midi velocity all the way up on one of my piano tracks, it definitely sounds clearer, although much more harsh than what Im going for. I recorded the midi data by playing very delicately. How would I turn velocity up for all tracks so I can just play at the appropriate velocity without going back and tweaking it?

[stephendanielson97]

So I opened up a new session, made a new instrument track and played Addictive Keys on that, and it sounds worlds apart from when I was playing the plugin in the other session. Did the midi data get corrupted? I pitched shifted the song a good amount of times, messed around with a lot of things, I guess I must have changed the sound quality at some point without realizing it. Any way I could change alter the midi data in my current session, or should I just start over from scratch?

[JFreak]

Well I would say now you just need to learn to "play" your virtual instrument

[stephendanielson97]

Fair point sir. Thanks for your help