Is there a program or plug-in that will enable me to input the velocities of the notes of a MIDI track as it plays? Just to clarify that, I'm interested in changing the note velocities of a pre-created MIDI track, rather than recording my own playing - imagine a virtuosic piano piece which almost cannot be played, but requires realistic note volumes. Is there an easier way than simply changing each note velocity manually? If possible, a step-time editor for such a task (i.e., inputting velocity instead of actual notes) would be ideal. However, any random velocity generators would also suffice. My program of choice is FL Studio, so anything geared towards that would be a bonus. Does such a program even exist? Thanks!

Reason 3 has a very simple and easy velocity editor in the step (or piano roll) editor. You can import any MIDI file you want, then using the bottom screen, draw in any velocity you'd like. Sonar has one as well as does pretty much any standard DAW program.

As far as something that will tweak the levels for you with just a click of a button....I'm not aware of anything like that. Besides I probably wouldn't trust a program that does that anyway, you can get much more realism doing edits like that yourself (given that you have a good ear and knowledge of music and the instrument you're working with!) :)

I hope that helps,

Lily, FLStudio probably has everything you need built in. For a start, the randomize feature will let you add a human touch to the velocities. And if you need to add more fine control, it's probably possible to link the velocity values to a controller in FLStudio, and then alter that while the piece is playing via Automation. I know you can do it with various other values. Or you can open up the piano roll view and draw in the velocities at the bottom of the screen; far easier and more intuitive than editing them numerically.

Quote: Original post by Kylotan
Lily, FLStudio probably has everything you need built in. For a start, the randomize feature will let you add a human touch to the velocities. And if you need to add more fine control, it's probably possible to link the velocity values to a controller in FLStudio, and then alter that while the piece is playing via Automation. I know you can do it with various other values. Or you can open up the piano roll view and draw in the velocities at the bottom of the screen; far easier and more intuitive than editing them numerically.

That was precisely what I was looking for - thanks! The first two methods both like interesting alternatives to drawing in note velocities manually. If you had any in-depth tutorials on either of them (I'm still quite a beginner at FL Studio), that would be excellent.

I found most of what I know out from the help file and experimentation.

If you can open up the piano roll for a given track, you may see the velocity values along the bottom as vertical lines on a graph, and you can click to edit them, or drag to edit several at once, or - if I remember correctly - right-click-drag to draw lines (such as to fade velocities in or out). There's really not much more to it than that.

As for randomize, I think you need to have the given track selected, or maybe have the piano roll open. Then find randomize in the menu. Make sure all the dials are at zero for everything except velocity. I think it even gives you a 'preview' of how far the velocity values have been altered, so you can tweak them to taste.

I'll be back at a FL-Studio machine at the weekend, if you have more questions.