specifically to the point regarding muting the track of the no-show bandmember:
for those who don't know, a basic MIDIfile has 16 tracks/channels, drums are typically on
channel 10, the lead or melody is often on channel 1 or 4, the rest of the "band"
chosen and placed by the author of the file, but you almost always have a Bass track
and a guitar/rhodes track "comping" chords and maybe a track for the counterpoint or harmony
or an improv type interlude.. maybe there is an occasional string section too
so most MIDIfiles come with multiple tracks and sounds to begin with,
Karaoke MIDI's also have lyrics and often a melody "follow the bouncing ball" track
that is muted or default zero volume (embedded) for each melody note
often. we find something on the net that is cool and adapt it to our own
arrangement or preferences, or we may make one from scratch
once someone like Rosie has a MIDI file of a song they play in her band,
it is likely she could pretty easily adjust a few tracks to reflect HOW they play
the song. say she wants to introduce a new song to them, well she plays the
track at rehearsal and If they are all pretty good, tight, they could easily play along
and once they "got it" she could quickly mute their "tracks" so they are
all now playing along with "just" the rhythm section and maybe the strings
and embellishments
so the next step is obvious and just as easy, one of her mates calls in sick
and can't make a date, she takes a bunch of their MIDI songs and quick mutes
his partss and renders them as MP3 files, pops them onto her phone, and
does the gig
over time, she gets an archive of minus one tracks of pretty much every band member
so it is easier and easier each time to cover for a missing mate
MIDI makes this kind of flexibility easy and convenient.. i personally had an archive
of MIDI tracks that were with or minus my Trumpet player, my Drummer, and a raft
of MIDI's in different keys for different Vocalists
the final audio quality of the MIDI is based upon 2 things, the finesse of whoever
crafted the MIDI, and the overall quality of the Sound Engine used for rendering
to an AUDIO format, and in my case, for at least 4 decades now, my MIDI's are
"CD quality studio sound" as used in live performance
so that's kind of how it works, or can work, and it can be a professional solution
to the "problem" or need referred to in this thread. It works/worked for me and a lot
of other people too. Some people prefer to go with studio audio tracks laid down
by a backing trax company or themselves, but once you make an audio track, you have
to make it all over again if you need to change something, so adjusting a MIDI file
then rendering it again is way easier than getting everyone back into the recording Studio
alternative to Audio performance files is to just take the MIDI files and a dedicated
machine and let the MIDI play in real time as you play along. The problem for this
specific need, however, is it is difficult to find a machine that makes muting of various
tracks easy to do on the fly.. the easiest way to play MIDI's live if you DO need to often
make adjustments or mute different tracks, is to have a dedicated laptop running your
software Sequencer and use it as your dedicated performance machine. Many of us gigged with
laptops back in the day, Yamaha had the first one with a slot that took a MIDI card
(basically a smart U-art serial port) it was a cool machine but heavy and had floppy disks.
this is older tech, but tried and true and can be resurrected at need by any of you..
if you have an older Windows computer that is useless now, re-purpose it as a Music
computer and you can have some fun with MIDI or, as Alan mentioned, Karaoke tracks too.
as far as the issue of having to play to the timing of a MIDI, i realize this seems to be
a sticking point for some, but personally i always want to be spot on with the
hooks and timing anyhow, so it was never any kind of inconvenience for me.
your mileage may vary..
