How HWIN makes MIDI feel human with Kontakt and real-time expression

MIDI instruments can feel lifeless if not approached with intention. Without the right techniques, performances risk sounding robotic, but when treated like real instruments, they can carry all the nuance and emotion of a live performance.

For HWIN, expressive performance has always been the foundation of his music. As the creative force behind Cathedrals, his productions pulled in 60 million streams and critical praise from The New York Times and Billboard.

Now, with the launch of 57 Records and his debut solo EP Just Like a Flower, he’s shifting focus to foster a community-driven approach to music. His work merges technical precision with human feel, blending Kontakt’s powerful articulation tools with an instinct for live performance that keeps his productions from feeling mechanical.

A pianist first and producer second, HWIN approaches MIDI the same way he approaches the keys – prioritizing expressive controllers, dynamic articulations, and real-time modulation over rigid programming. He leans heavily on Kontakt’s built-in performance controls, from legato transitions to multi-mic blending to craft sounds that breathe.

The result? Tracks that carry the human touch of live instrumentation, even when created entirely in the box.

Jump to these sections:

• Making MIDI instruments feel expressive and human
• Shaping contrast and dynamics for emotional impact
• Structuring tracks so transitions feel natural, not forced
• Using Kontakt’s articulations and mic positions for realism
• Avoiding the common pitfalls of static, lifeless MIDI

With Just Like a Flower marking the start of a new chapter, HWIN is taking his production approach beyond just his own music. Through 57 Records, he’s building a community-driven label and creative movement where artists and listeners are part of the process. His insights go beyond technical know-how – they’re about creating music that connects.

Let’s dive in.

Try it in Kontakt

MIDI instruments can sometimes feel static – what’s your approach to making them feel expressive and alive?

As a pianist first and producer second, I approach MIDI instruments with the same mindset I bring to a piano performance. The key is understanding that expression not from the instrument itself but from how you interact with it. For me, that means investing in controllers with genuine pressure sensitivity, aftertouch, and responsive keys. My studio setup prioritizes keyboards that translate subtle finger movements into data the computer can understand – because those micro-variations in pressure and timing are where the soul lives.

When working with Kontakt instruments specifically, I focus on utilizing their built-in expression controls rather than trying to add expressiveness after the fact. I’ll map modulation wheels, expression pedals, and pitch bend to parameters that create movement and evolution in the sound.

With string libraries, for instance, I might link the mod wheel to control dynamics or vibrato intensity in real time while performing. This approach creates those beautiful imperfections and variations that make virtual instruments breathe. The goal isn’t perfection – it’s capturing something that feels genuinely human, with all the subtle ebbs and flows that entails.

Pro tip from HWIN: Create your own articulation snapshots in Kontakt by saving different combinations of microphone positions, dynamics settings, and expression controls. This builds a personal library of emotionally specific sounds you can recall instantly during the creative process.

What’s your philosophy on contrast and dynamics in a track – how do you decide when to strip things back vs. build tension?

Contrast is everything in music – it’s what gives emotional impact to every element. My approach to dynamics is heavily influenced by classical composition, where tension and release create an emotional journey. I often think of a track as having its own narrative arc, with moments of suspension and resolution that mirror how we experience emotions.

The decision to strip things back usually comes from listening to what the emotional core of the track needs at that moment. Sometimes you need to create space for the listener to breathe and absorb what they’ve just heard before taking them somewhere new.

On “I Will Release You,” I deliberately structured the track with these contrast points where, after a big section, everything drops to just strings and vocals.

These moments weren’t calculated – they emerged from playing the track from beginning to end and feeling where my own attention wanted a shift. I find that when I’m getting slightly bored or overstimulated while listening back, that’s precisely where the track needs a dynamic change. The best dynamic shifts feel inevitable in retrospect but surprising in the moment. That tension between expectation and surprise is where the magic happens in dance music – creating moments where the listener feels both satisfaction and discovery simultaneously.

Pro tip from HWIN: For more convincing strings, avoid having all notes start and end simultaneously. Real string sections naturally have slight variations in timing – mimic this by subtly staggering note starts and releases across different string parts

You mentioned “deliberate collisions of contrast” – how do you structure a track so these moments feel natural instead of forced?

The key to making dramatic contrast points feel natural rather than jarring is creating a thread of continuity that runs through those transitions. On Just Like a Flower, I used the string arrangements as that consistent emotional thread – they’re present in both the intimate breakdowns and the explosive drops, creating a bridge between these seemingly opposite moments. This approach creates a sense that the entire track exists within a cohesive emotional world, even as it moves between vastly different energy states.

I also rely heavily on what I call “emotional foreshadowing” – introducing subtle elements of what’s coming next before making a dramatic shift. Before a stripped-back section, I might gradually thin out percussion while introducing the first hints of the string melody that will become prominent in the breakdown.

Similarly, before a big drop, I’ll often bring in subtle atmospheric elements that contain the emotional DNA of what’s about to explode into the foreground. These techniques make dramatic contrasts feel earned and organic rather than arbitrary.

The goal is to create a sense that these collisions of contrast were inevitable all along – that the intimate and the anthemic are actually two sides of the same emotional coin.

Pro tip from HWIN: Try recording MIDI at half-tempo when working with complex string parts. This gives you more control over expression while preserving the natural timing variations that make performances feel human when played back at full speed.

Do you prefer to use MIDI controllers to play in parts, or do you edit note-by-note for maximum control?

I’m firmly in the camp of playing in parts rather than programming them note-by-note. As a pianist, I find that the happy accidents and natural timing variations that emerge from a live performance bring a human quality that’s nearly impossible to program manually. There’s something about the way fingers naturally phrase a melody – the subtle accelerations and hesitations, the variations in velocity – that creates an organic feel no quantization can replicate. Even when I make mistakes during recording, I’ll often keep them if they add an interesting texture or emotional twist.

That said, I do sometimes clean up obvious errors or make small adjustments after recording, but I try to preserve the overall performance as much as possible.

What might look like inconsistencies in the MIDI data are often the very elements that make a part feel alive and breathing. I’ve found that listeners respond to that human quality even if they can’t consciously identify it – there’s something in our musical DNA that recognizes and connects with the imperfections of human performance. For orchestral elements especially,

trying to program them note-by-note often results in that mechanical, uncanny valley effect where everything is technically correct but emotionally flat.

Pro tip from HWIN: Use MIDI CC11 (Expression) alongside CC1 (Modulation) when performing string parts. While modulation often controls dynamics, expression can shape phrases in more subtle ways, creating that breathing quality that static MIDI lacks

Are there any Kontakt articulations or performance techniques you rely on for realism?

With string libraries in Kontakt, I’ve found that the key to realism isn’t just choosing the right articulations but understanding how real string players would approach a phrase. I rely heavily on legato articulations for melodic lines, but I’ll often mix in subtle portamento transitions at key moments – just as a real string section would use sliding techniques for emotional emphasis.

For background textures, I layer different articulations like sul tasto (playing over the fingerboard for a softer sound) with regular sustains to create more complex, evolving textures that avoid the static quality virtual instruments can sometimes have.

Another technique I’ve found crucial is using multiple microphone positions within Kontakt libraries. Instead of using the default mix, I often create my own blend of close, room, and ambient mics depending on the emotional quality I’m seeking.

For intimate sections, I might emphasize the close mics to capture the breathing and textural details of the instruments, while gradually bringing in more room mics as the arrangement builds. This approach creates a natural sense of depth and space that evolves with the track. I also pay careful attention to release samples – the natural decay of notes – as these often determine whether a virtual instrument feels convincingly real or awkwardly artificial.

Pro tip from HWIN: When layering synthesized and sample-based instruments, use Kontakt’s instruments to provide the natural transients and textural details while synths fill in the sustained body of the sound. This hybrid approach combines the expressiveness of samples with the consistency of synthesis.

If a producer is struggling to make their MIDI instruments feel expressive, what’s the first thing you’d tell them to focus on?

The first thing I’d tell them is to step away from the computer and reconnect with how music feels physically. So many producers get caught up in the visual representation of MIDI – those perfectly aligned notes on a grid – that they forget music exists primarily as a physical, emotional experience. If you’re struggling to make virtual instruments feel alive, record yourself humming or singing the melody you want to create. Pay attention to where you naturally breathe, where you push or pull the timing, how your voice naturally shapes phrases. That human template contains all the DNA of expression you’re trying to capture.

The second focus should be investing in a quality controller that translates physical expression into MIDI data. A keyboard with aftertouch and pressure sensitivity will capture nuances that a basic MIDI keyboard simply can’t detect. Even if you’re not a trained keyboardist, playing parts in – even slowly or with one finger – will capture micro-timing and velocity variations that feel natural to the human ear.

And don’t be afraid of imperfection – often what makes a part feel “off” when you look at it in MIDI is exactly what makes it feel alive when you listen to it. Remember that some of the most enduring classical recordings contain “mistakes” that have become beloved precisely because they reveal the humanity behind the performance.

Pro tip from HWIN: Record automation of key expression parameters in real-time while listening to your track playback, rather than drawing it in afterward. This captures your intuitive, emotional response to the music, creating more natural-feeling dynamic changes.

Wrapping it all up

A huge thank you to HWIN for sharing his insight into making MIDI instruments feel alive and expressive. His approach – prioritizing real-time performance, dynamic articulations, and Kontakt’s powerful expression tools – proves that virtual instruments don’t have to sound robotic.

Whether it’s shaping contrast through subtle timing variations or using multi-mic blending for depth, his techniques highlight the importance of human feel in digital production.

What stood out most was his emphasis on performance over perfection – capturing the imperfections that make a track feel real rather than chasing a quantized, sterile sound. His process of blending Kontakt’s deep expression controls with intuitive, hands-on playing is a masterclass in bringing emotion into MIDI-based music.

If you want to hear these techniques in action, check out his debut solo EP, Just Like a Flower, out now on 57 Records. More than just a release, it marks the start of creative movement – bringing artists together through collaboration, music, and immersive events.

Whether you’re looking for production inspiration or a deeper connection to the music community, HWIN’s work proves that electronic music is most powerful when built on real human expression.

Discover Kontakt