Twiddly Bits

What Are Twiddly.Bits?

Twiddly.Bits are MIDI Samples. Clear as mud?

Okay, MIDI Samples are short recorded "sound bites" - drum loops, guitar riffs, basslines - that have been played by real people on real instruments.

Instead of using regular instruments and microphones, the music is recorded as MIDI data, direct into a computer, using special MIDI instruments (a MIDI keyboard, MIDI drums, a MIDI guitar, or a MIDI wind instrument . There's even a MIDI violin!).

And instead of recording the parts onto tape (or hard disk, or any other form of digital audio medium) the parts are recorded directly into a sequencer.

Why MIDI samples? And what's so special about them?

They are called MIDI "Samples" because, like audio samples on a sample CD, the parts are actual performances by musicians. They are not programmed, they are played, and so contain all the little inflections, variations, and subtleties that make music life-like and human. Musicians call it "feel".

MIDI, as any sequencer-user knows, is incredibly flexible: you can swap sounds, change speed, play in different keys, mix and match, cut and paste. But it is is very difficult to make MIDI sound human.

You can add that human touch by synchronizing using real live-played drum loops. But samples, as anyone who works with them comes to realise eventually, are not very flexible. It's a hassle to alter the speed of a drum loop, or the pitch of a guitar strum! And it's pretty well impossible to edit out a particular note, or change the basic sound.

Frankly, using samples is a bit of a done-deal. A bit like painting by numbers.

So the choice is either feel or flexibility. Can't we have both?

Yes you can.

By recording real players on MIDI instruments and then slicing and dicing the recordings into usable chunks - short riffs, grooves, licks, etc - you can capture and preserve human feel. Load those riffs, grooves, licks etc into a sequencer and you can then manipulate them any which way you like in the fast and flexible environment of MIDI.

This is the concept of a MIDI Sample. And it is the foundation of the whole Twiddly.Bits series.

The Twiddly.Bits series is a whole library of such recordings saved in SMF (Standard MIDI File) format on floppy disk.

Each Twiddly.Bits volume contains literally hundreds of grooves, and riffs, and motifs that you can "cut and paste" into a sequencer. Some volumes contain parts played by just one instrument, with parts in a wide variety of musical styles. Others focus on a particular style of music - jazz, country, funk etc - with all the instruments that are generally used in that style of music (fiddle, pedal steel, guitar for country; electric piano, Clavinet, brass if it's funk).

It doesn't matter what standard you are at, or what your application is: using MIDI Samples brings music to life almost as if you'd managed to insert a herd (Hmm, what is the collective noun for musicians?) of world class players straight into your computer.

Using Twiddly.Bits you have access to top players and "happening" playing without having to leave the world of MIDI sequencing. Without having to rely on audio tracks (digital or otherwise) to make your music sound real.

Frequently asked questions

1. I can play. So do I really need Twiddly.Bits?

You can play? Great. Most of us here at Keyfax Software are or were professional players. Twiddly.Bits is not a replacement for playing ability.

Just because you play keys, or drums, or whatever instrument, doesn't mean you can play ALL instruments. Every instrument has its own playing technique, its own idiosyncrasies, its own set of typical motifs. And few people outside of top arrangers know what these are, much less how to recreate them in MIDI.

So you're a great keyboard player? But how's your drum programming?

And as it happens even top arrangers use Twiddly.Bits. Being able to interact with different players, and being able to call up, say, beautifully played snare rolls IN AN INSTANT is incredibly useful. Not to say inspirational.

Frankly, if you're a good player you'll appreciate the musicianship and subtlety of Twiddly.Bits all the more.

2. Does everyone end up sounding the same?

Absolutely not. For a start, each volume contains between 300 and 700 individual parts. More importantly, because this is data, and not a fixed sample, you can transpose, invert, expand, edit parts quickly and effectively.

A simple example would be turning a guitar chord strum of C major into C minor simply by changing the E into an E flat.

Finally the context in which parts are played, plus the sound they are being played back on, will completely 'customise' parts and give them their own unique feel and purpose.

3. How do I change keys?

Most Twiddly.Bits parts are saved to "C." If it's a minor chord strum it'll be C Minor. If it's a blues riff on piano. It'll be a C minor riff. This way, whatever you want a chord or run to be you can simply transpose accordingly (turn a C into an F by transposing +5).

4. Is there any additional license to pay?

No. We pay musicians either fees or royalties so that you can use these parts wherever you need without having to 'clear copyright'. Credits are at your discretion.

Some typical applications.

• Instant access to quality musicianship, for any MIDI sequencer user. Offering parts that are impossible to play and/or too time consuming to program.
• Professional composing. How many times have you been faced with a deadline on a piece of music that has to be composed in a style that you're not familiar with? Why not simply call on the services of a musician to whom that style is their bag?
• Customising commercial MIDI Files. By simply inserting a nice guitar lick, or drum roll into an otherwise often 'bland' commercial MIDI file, even comparative novices can interact with, and create new music.
• Song writing: Cut and paste, loop and link parts in order to create complete songs solely using these files. A endless number of styles, grooves, types can be achieved using transpositions, re-instrumentation, single note editing, and different playback speeds.
• Education. By going into the edit pages of your sequencer you can 'see' how Steve Hackett plays a certain guitar lick, or Jon Savannah plays some of those excellent Clavinet patterns, and so mimic, or hopefully learn to develop parts of your own in similar style.