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Bello anu welcome to this booklet about
NIBI (Nusical Instiument Bigital Inteiface)
wheie I will be intiouucing NIBI to
musicians who aie without knowleuge
about the subject anu also peihaps
peisuauing musicians who aie unsuie
whethei to use NIBI softwaie in theii woik
into giving it a tiy anu being pleasantly
suipiiseu at how easy anu intuitive it can
be.

12) 3')4."&+ 56 !-7-
Niui was cieateu in the eaily 8u's, but this
uoesn't mean that electionic music
instiuments suuuenly spawneu when NIBI
was populaiiseu. In fact, electionic music
instiuments have in some shape oi foim
been aiounu since the late 19
th
centuiy.

Things like 'The Singing Telegiaph' weie
inventeu when Electiicity itself became a
householu commouity. Also all thioughout
Euiope in the eaily to miu Twentieth
Centuiy, Nusical contiaptions weie (anu
still aie) becoming moie anu moie populai
with items like the "0nues-Naitenot" fiom
Fiance.








The '0nues-Naitenot' what is not totally
unlike the Russian Theiemin in the way it
uses hanu movement to contiol the pitch
although the capabilities of the instiument
weie latei auueu to gieatly by multiple
auuitions such as louuspeakeis.
0i the Russian "Theiemin" itself.


The Theiemin, which is contiolleu by the
Theieminist who places theii hanus in
ielative positions to the Theiemin's two
antennae wheie one antenna will contiol
the oscillation foi fiequency with one hanu
anu with the othei hanu contiol the volume
which combineu cieates a slightly haunting
sounu. This instiument is still useu well into
the 21
st
Centuiy in music piouuction.

The typical connections anu cable poits
on a stanuaiu NIBI keyboaiu what aie
useu to tianspoit NIBI Bata between
NIBI speaking machines aie usually five
pin BIN stanuaiu cables what aie Nale
to Female. Niui is not only useu foi
musical messages, it can also be useu to
contiol lighting anu othei stage effects.



Nale Female


Beie aie the typical connections on
the back of a NIBI keyboaiu.

Nost NIBI keyboaius will iun off of
BC Powei oi be poweieu by the 0SB
connection fiom the computei.







It is veiy impoitant to have the coiiect
postuie when playing any instiument but
especially when playing a Keyboaiu oi any
othei instiument what iequiies you to be
veiy piecise with youi hanu movements.
Coiiect
Incoiiect.
It is also extiemely impoitant to have the
coiiect postuie anu also to uo youi waim
up's befoie playing any instiument.
It is quick anu easy to waim up, all you neeu
to uo is stietch youi hanus togethei anu
play youi Piano scales.
Failuie to play without waiming up oi
having the coiiect postuie can cause a lot of
pioblems in the futuie.

!-7- 8)9:&4'#,

Theie is not only one type of NIBI
keyboaiu. Theie aie uiffeient keyboaius
fiom many uiffeient manufactuieis, all
which can be similai oi have multiple
uiffeiences.

0sually the uiffeiences will be uepenuant
on the piice you'ie paying foi youi
keyboaiu.

The main ones being things like the amount
of keys on the keyboaiu what iequiies you
to not have to change 0ctaves on the actual
keyboaiu itself as much, Pitch benus,
Nouulation contiol anu Bium Paus.

This Alesis Q2S is an example of quite a
basic NIBI keyboaiu anu what ioughly Su
can get you. It gives you the simple contiols
such as Pitch & Nouulation contiol along
with 0ctave changes what aie on almost
eveiy NIBI keyboaiu as stanuaiu.


This keyboaiu is the Akai Piofessional
NPK49 which will set you back anywheie
fiom 2Su upwaius.

As you can see it has Biums Paus which you
can use when woiking in BAW's to quickly
piess in a uium sounu of youi choice.

You can also see it also has uouble the
amount of keys compaieu to the cheapei
alteinative.



7;<=

BAW (Bigital Auuio Woikstation) is a teim
useu in the inuustiy to quickly explain
sequencing softwaie like Logic Pio, Ableton,
Reason, Pio Tools anu etc.

0n BAW'S it pietty much essential to have a
NIBI keyboaiu if you want to cieate youi
own music. You Can use the loops which aie
alieauy incluueu in the softwaie to make a
song but to cieate youi own you neeu NIBI
instiuments (0nless you want to use an on
scieen keyboaiu with youi
laptopcomputei keyboaiu keys)
!-7- 3&++)0."&+,
To connect the NIBI keyboaiu to youi computei
you will neeu to fiist check the back of youi
keyboaiu foi the connection poits.

It will most likely be these connections so you
will neeu a cable like this

Which is NIBI to 0SB what shoulu go stiaight
into youi peisonal computei.

!-7- !),,4*),

A common misconception about NIBI is
that it senus ieal auuio to othei NIBI
speaking machines, this is wiong. NIBI is
actually a music uesciiption language in
uigital (Binaiy) foim.

NIBI was uesigneu with keyboaiu-baseu
musical instiuments in minu so the
messages it senus can also caiiy the
infoimation of the velocity which is the
stiength that you hit each inuiviuual key
uown at.

NIBI can also be useu to senu othei
messages such as changing musical
instiument at the hit of a key, volume
incieaseueciease oi even panning the
sounus which you heai being piouuceu not
by the keyboaiu itself to the left oi iight.

Because NIBI uoesn't senu actual auuio but
is it's own binaiy language it can also be
useu on stages foi things like lighting
effects, confetti uumpeis anu multiple othei
things which aie shown below.







!9 >)',&+4? @AB)'")+0), C".2 !-7-

In the woik I have been uoing iecently I
have ieally come to appieciate NIBI anu it's
nevei-enuing auvantages.
I have iecently maue anu iecoiueu multiple
compositions anu shoit melouies using
NIBI anu was able quickly anu easily cieate
quantize the out of time key stiokes I
playeu in acciuentally by simply
highlighting what I wanteu to quantize in
the Piano Roll on the BAW Logic Pio 9


Anothei thing NIBI is biilliant foi is when
you've iecoiueu something but know it isn't
enough, you can always go back anu auu
moie to the initial iecoiuing just by cieating
a new tiack anu playing something in.


Also notice that theie aie multiple uiffeient
instiuments playing togethei at once but
only been playeu in with a NIBI keyboaiu
anu you aie able to change these
instiuments with a click of the mouse by
changing instiuments in the Logic Libiaiy
of Instiuments.

So if I wanteu to change the Woouen
Naiimba what is highlighteu into a uiffeient
sounu completely like a synthesizei it only
takes a few clicks.

Simply select Neuia -> Libiaiy -> then
select youi instiument choice anu theie will
be a whole loau of sub instiuments foi you
to choose fiom.





Say you've alieauy playeu in anu iecoiueu
what you wanteu to iecoiu but think that
what you playeu is not playeu in stiong
enough. It is veiy simple to change the
velocity of alieauy iecoiueu NIBI notes.


uo back to the Piano Roll anu click the tool
bai which shoulu look like this
Select the velocity tool anu simply uiag anu
click on the note you'u like to change et
voila you've changeu the velocity of the
note.

The coloui of the note inuicates the velocity
what it is playeu.
Puiple inuicating weakest anu Reu the
stiongest.
Now I'll be talking about the Tool's on BAW
Logic Pio 9 staiting fiom the top

Pointei Tool - The mouse what allows you
to click anu uiag like a noimal cuisoi.

Pencil Tool - Allows you to uiaw in notes
into the Piano ioll without using a Niui
keyboaiu to play them in.

Eiasei Tool - Easily uelete the notes in the
Piano ioll you uon't want.
Text Tool - Easily change the name's on the
BAW.

Scissoi Tool - Zoom in anu cut apait auuio
tiacks what you've eithei iecoiueu with
Niciophones oi just cut apait the loops
what you've placeu onto a tiack.

ulue Tool - ulue back togethei two sepaiate
paits of auuio on a tiack.

Solo Tool - Solo an inuiviuual tiack so you
can heai it playing solo.

Nute Tool - Nute an inuiviuual note on
Piano Roll oi mute a full tiack so you can't
heai it being playeu with eveiything else.

Zoom Tool - 0se this to zoom in on a
paiticulai pait of the tiack you wish to euit.
Faue Tool - The faue tool allows you to auu
faue to the beginning oi enu of an auuio
tiack such as iecoiueu vocals oi loops.

Automation Select Tool - Allows you to
easily select a ceitain noue of Automation
(volume fauing, Panning, wiite contiols
etc.)

Automation Cuive Tool - If you've wiote in
some automation uata such as volume
fauing it is easiei to make it sounu natuial
with the Automation Cuive tool.

Naiquee Tool - The Naiquee tool allows
you to uo multiple things a lot easiei. Foi
example you can click anu uiag to select
iegions of multiple tiacks anu mute them all
at once oi play only that pait insteau of
auuing a loop.


Flex Tool - The flex tool is useu to flex the
timing on iecoiueu auuio anu change the
ihythm easily, also easy to ie-time a ieal
iecoiueu instiument to the tempo which
you woulu like.















!-7- D4, 324+*)# !/,"0

The cieation of NIBI has without a uoubt
changeu the way eveiybouy looks at music
piouuction. Fiistly, NIBI has given
eveiybouy who uses it a big step up in
accessibility to cieating his oi hei own
music. All you neeu to get staiteu is a
computei with some foim of sequencing
softwaie anu a NIBI keyboaiu anu you'ie
enteiing a whole new woilu of piouuction.

Pietty much eveiybouy in the music
inuustiy uses NIBI in theii woik now, fiom
instiumental anu iap piouucing aitists like
Kanye West to post-piouuction on heavy
metal music tiacks because it's so easy to
auu little sounus oi change vocal effects oi
auu volume to guitais which may be ovei
shauoweu by the uium's. Liteially anything
you coulu think of that woulu be helpful to
piouuction. Even auuing stage effects like
lighting changes anu confetti uioppeis to
NIBI's nevei enuing list of usefulness foi
musicians anu peifoimeis.
Nusic piouuction anu what is seen as
populai music has obviously changeu
significantly since composeis like Nozait oi
Chopin weie making music but if music
weie to be the same now as it was then
except these composeis hau NIBI anu
BAW's available to them, what woulu music
tiuly be like now.

I feel like a composei woulu be able to tiuly
appieciate the simplicity of changing even
the most minoi uetail of theii music by the
Piano Roll in the BAW Logic Pio oi even the
Scoie euitoi what is in Logic Pio

Nusic woulu be much moie evolveu if NIBI
hau been uevelopeu anu populaiiseu an
extia Su+ yeais. I can't even begin to
imagine how much uiffeient "Pop" music
woulu be touay oi what it woulu sounu like.

You uon't even have to look back that fai to
imagine how uiffeient music woulu be, just
imagine if Aitists like Elvis Piesley oi 6u's
gioups like The ventuie's hau NIBI
available to them. Woulu Suif music have
uevelopeu. Woulu people be moie
inteiesteu in making clean sounuing
electionic music ovei the ieveib anu wet
echo sounus of the time.

Singeis like Fiank Sinatia woulun't neeu a
whole 0ichestia behinu them foi eveiy
peifoimance they uiu.




3&+0?/,"&+

Ny peisonal expeiiences while composing
with NIBI have been anything but uifficult
oi teuious, I've actually extiemely enjoyeu
cieating my own pieces using the
techniques I alieauy but also has become
even moie enjoyable the moie I leain about
NIBI, how NIBI woiks anu moie techniques
on BAW's anu how they woik.

The things I founu easiest was being able to
ioughly play the song in that I wanteu anu
euit it in the Piano Roll, the fact that you can
move things all aiounu anu change the
velocity is extiemely helpful also as some
ceitain instiuments on Logic have uiffeient
sounus uepenuing on the velocity you piess
the key uown at. Then being able to
quantize it to make it all in time anu on beat
with eveiything else that is playing.


The only pioblem I evei have with composing
my own music with NIBI is the fact theie is so
much choice, I am always being spoilt foi which
sounu I actually want (which is anything but a
uownfall of NIBI's). I always enu up playing
something in, ieally liking it anu then playing
something else in so I always have multiple
beginnings to many uiffeient songs what I think
all sounu goou.

While I love the fieeuom to cieate youi own
music with pietty much any sounu you uesiie, I
woulu finu it quite inteiesting to play about with
a featuie wheie you coulu pick a specific
instiument on youi cuiient BAW anu
ianuomize the effects which aie on it, so
imagine having some "Pop Tiumpets" on Logic
Pio anu shuffling the ieveib anu othei effects.

The only ieal impiovements to NIBI that I can
even think of woulu be the sounus of things like
Tiumpets anu Boins not sounuing so cheesy
stiaight off the cuff so you woulun't have to auu
effects to them just to make them not so ciinge-
woithy.

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