too many variables to make midi playback match performance?

[nowtime]

In my explorations with "keeping it all in midi" over the years I have always found brick walls and I was hoping for some opinions from experts like yourselves on this.

It is great to record to audio and get the performance right. But there are so many benefits to midi; fix that one bad note, try a different sound, add and tweak layers of effects or filter manipulation, etc.

I am using Live and my Kronos and Virus TI2. I am in the early stages of seeing if I can reliably capture my performance in midi. I am often playing with one hand and altering the sound with another. Does anyone care to point out some areas to watch out for in regards to the many variables that make the midi playback not match the audio file? Maybe I'm jumping the gun asking this, but it seems it should "just work" and play back exactly the same. The first thing I notice is the beginning of the playback starts at a different filter setting.

[StephenKay]

If you are going to twiddle knobs while recording MIDI, one thing to be aware of: the CC that the knob is sending will only be recorded into the track when you first move it. There is no starting point automatically recorded into the track. If you play some stuff, and record it, and then 10 seconds in you move a knob, that is the first event that will be recorded for that knob. If you leave the knob way "up" at the end of the recording, then play it back, the knob will start where it is - way "up". There is nothing at the beginning of the recording that resets it to a starting point. So you either have to insert a CC event at the beginning of the track with the starting value, or move the knob right at the beginning of the recording to get a starting value recorded, BEFORE you start recording the rest of the stuff.

[nowtime]

That's VERY helpful, thank you!

Hmmmm, so its as simple as a pre-wiggle. I'll get right to that.

Karma has get magic in it BTW FTW. Hendrix would have loved a guitar/floorboard version.

[rbrucemtl]

I purchased a Kronos 61 a week ago still waiting for the shipment but I've got lots of experience with MIDI.

As StephenKay suggested too...

Tweaking the controls to set an initial value is not always enough and can give small artifacts at the beginning as the values are moving into position. A small movement can record a lot of CC data just for a quick turn. You should look into inserting the just one initial event to get a clean start.