When you are starting in your home studio,all you think you have to do is, just pick up your guitar ,a bass , a microphone and record your song in your DAW. This way you are going to have as many songs you want.
I totally agree with you but there are some times that you may want to record some instruments such as a string ensemble, where you don’t have so many musicians available or you don’t have the space to record them. For reasons like these we use midi recording. As you already know midi recording is where you can use samples of vst instruments using a midi keyboard. This way you can record instruments that you could never have them recorded in your home studio. With vst instruments and sound banks you have guitars,basses, drums, strings,brass and anything you can dream of.
In midi recording you have 16 tracks at your disposal to record. They are more than enough for recording a song. You have to consider the fact that you are goings to record audio for your production. There are some music productions that although have only midi tracks and they are very good indeed. With the technology evolution you can edit all midi tracks and insert effects on them. For editing these midi tracks you can use midi editor or key editor where you can move ,copy and paste every single note. You can adjust their length or their dynamics. A very powerful and useful tool for your midi recordings.
Another thing that you can do with midi recording is that even you are not a pianist or a keyboardist you can record a piano part for your songs using the step by step midi guide. You can record your left hand at first and after that your right hand using the overdub function. If you want to succed better performance you can decrease your song’s tempo and you are going to record like a professional pianist. You can manage your midi tracks like the audio ones. You can add them equalizer, compressors and any other effect you like. Sometimes all you have to do is to record a simple pad in your arrangement just to add some clarity in your whole mix. If you are an audio recording person I would suggest to try and use some midi recordings in your songs. You are going to get vey good results combinh thesebtwo ways of recording.
Are you using midi recording in your productions? Let me know in the comments below if you do and what instruments do you use for your recordings.