MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital (or Direct, in some circles) Interface. It is a common language that electronic musical instruments use to communicate with each other. MIDI can send information such as note on/note off messages, sustain pedal information, pitch bend and modulation, and a host of other messages that allow synthesizers, drum machines [...]
Using MIDI THRU
We know that all MIDI Interfaces are not created equally. Most common interfaces will have a MIDI IN and a MIDI OUT port. If all you will ever use is one MIDI instrument, then that will probably work quite nicely for you. But, if you are a gadget freak like me, then you will wind [...]
MIDI Channels
Every instrument in your MIDI setup has to have a MIDI Channel number assigned to it so that you can specify which instrument will respond to which data stream. There are sixteen MIDI channels available for you to use: 1 – 16. It is important to note that the channels are not exclusive, meaning that [...]
Using MIDI Patchbays
A MIDI Patch Bay is a device that allows dynamic control over your MIDI devices. Models come with up to 34 MIDI IN/OUT ports (sometimes even more, if you can find one) and each input port can have the output of any other port in the patchbay mapped to it. This allows for complex, multiple [...]
The MIDI Interface
Any decent synthesizer these days comes with a MIDI Interface built into it. Most computers today come with some sort of Sound Card pre-installed that is capable of functioning as a MIDI instrument using General MIDI or GM. You will need an adaptor cable, though, to plug external MIDI instruments into the sound card so [...]
MIDI Messages
When you press a key on your keyboard to trigger a note on another synth, you are sending a single MIDI event. All MIDI messages are made up of a series of “words” of binary information. So each note you play constitutes a single event. MIDI uses a serial interface (like a Modem) that operates [...]
Limitations of MIDI
At this point it is necessary to state the obvious: There are a ton of different MIDI devices made by many different manufacturers. Each have different features, different sounds, and, in some cases, add propriety functions to the accepted implementation of the MIDI standard (especially some of the first MIDI-compatible synthesizers). Just because a device [...]
