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MIDI
Essential Facts over the past 20 years - taken from Keyboard
Magazine January 2003
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| 1.
MIDI sends performance instructions, not sound!
When you press a key on your MIDI keyboard you're not making a sound
- you are sending a performance instruction called a note-on-message.
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| 2.
Standard MIDI Files - With Standard MIDI Files (SMF's)
you can load them into any other sequencer. SMF's are similar to RTF
(Rich Text Format) files. RTF formatted files can be read by almost
all word processors. Also with SMF's you can load them into
notation programs as well as sequencing programs.
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| 3.
General MIDI - Released in 1991, the General MIDI
specification was an attempt to overcome of one of the basic
limitations of MIDI. The problem was MIDI program change messages
are simply numbers. They don't tell you what sound the receiving
synth will switch to when it receives the program change 27 0r 103.
Could be a flute, could be a dog barking. You just never knew.
General MIDI is a standardized list of 128 programs names (sounds or
patches) that all MIDI software and keyboards will have. The idea
was that this would allow composers and arrangers to create SMF's
that would sound the same no matter what software or hardware they
were using.
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4.
USB - Over the past five years the creation of USB and
other types of network connections has been a major development
.Today you can purchase MIDI keyboards that do not require a MIDI
interface!! They are called USB Keyboards and they transfer the MIDI
information by way of the USB port not an interface. No more MIDI
cables or interfaces!!
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to read the
entire Keyboard Magazine article on MIDI turns 20
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MIDI
stands for Musical Instrument
Digital Interface.
It allows different keyboards and synthesizers from different
manufacturers to communicate with one another. These same
instruments can also communicate with a MIDI enabled computer.
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MIDI
was invented in the early 1980s by a group of electronic instrument
manufacturers who decided that it would be great if you could
connect several different instruments together, and let them play
simultaneously, regardless of which company manufactured the
instrument.
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How MIDI Works
MIDI is not something physical. MIDI
is not something that you can see. You can't go into a music store
and buy three guitar picks, 2 quarter inch cords and a box of
MIDI. First lets break down the word MIDI
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MI - Music
Instrument - The controller used to send MIDI into the
computer
DI -
Digital Interface - Digital is
referred to as binary code a series of zeros and ones. For example:
When you play middle C on the keyboard, audio is not being sent to
the computer. What is being sent is
this00001001011000100100100100100111110001010101101. This represents
what the binary code for middle C in might be. This is true for any
digital signal. Interface is how the signal physically gets
into the computer. Most computers today will use an USB interface. MIDIMAN
is the most common interface used. Below is a picture of a MIDIMAN
USB 1X1 MIDI Interface
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MIDI Cables
MIDI Cables are a five pin cable that
will connect between your keyboard and your MIDI interface. In order
for the connection to work you must have the cable connected the
following way.
MIDI
IN (on keyboard) - MIDI OUT (Interface)
MIDI
OUT (on keyboard) - MIDI IN (Interface)
If you connection is MIDI IN - MIDI
IN or MIDI OUT - MIDI OUT nothing will work.
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MIDI is data or
information. MIDI is not an
audio signal. You can't go MIDI out of your keyboard and
plug it into a mixer and get sound. The computer translates the
signal into music and that is what you hear.
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General MIDI
The electronic instrument
manufacturers got together again and wanted to fix the following
problem: I have created a file on my computer and it sounds great. I
bring it over to a friends house that has different software and a
different keyboard and it sound wrong. None of the sounds are the
same.
Solution: GENERAL MIDI - General MIDI
is a standardized set of 128 sounds that every keyboard and music
software uses. So when you trade MIDI files all the sounds will be
the same regardless of computer platform, software or
hardware.
GENERAL
MIDI SOUND SET
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MIDI Channels
A General
MIDI device must be able to simultaneously play back a
different instrument or patch on each of its 16 channels. Every
track in your MIDI sequencing program must a assigned a MIDI CH. Any
track can have any MIDI CH. To make it easy keep the track number
and MIDI Channel number the same. EX Track 1 - MIDI CH 1, etc. THE
ONLY EXCEPTION TO IS THE FOLLOWING:
Drums and percussion instruments
are always assigned to MIDI channel 10.
How to
compare MIDI Channels to Television Stations
You are watching ESPN. On ESPN you
are watching Sunday Night Football. ONLY ON ESPN will you find
Sunday Night Football. Channel 3 has a different show and so does
Channel 30. NO TWO stations will have the same show on. The same
goes for MIDI Channels. MIDI CH 1 you have a guitar - MIDI CH 2 you
have a bass, etc. NO TWO MIDI CHANNELS will have the same sound.
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