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MIDI FAST FACTS 1. 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.
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. 2. 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. |
| 3. 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. |
| 4. 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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5. 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!!
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 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
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.
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. 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. MIDI ChannelsA 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. MIDI ONLY USES 16 CHANNELS!! Click to see the GENERAL MIDI Instrument list
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