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MIDI question?

F

Fred19137

Jan 23, 2009
230
0
Disclosures
active musician
#1
I was really just wonder what it did. I tried to read it on Wikipedia, but you cannot expect much. I guess somehow it can hook up to your computer, how do I do that if I don't have a MIDI plug. What other things could I use this MIDI ability for? thank you

the reason why I ask this is because I am looking for a keyboard that has the "hammer-action", "wieghted-keys" feel that I can also rack out some decent sounds. And some of these keyboards I have been looking at keep mentioning the MIDI properties it possesses, which to me sounds like my spanish class(I don't understand a thing!). I just want to know If this is something I should invest in.
 
#3
Musical Instrument Digital Interface ...

It specifies a type of cable and some types of signals, so that any MIDI-enabled instrument can tell other MIDI instruments what notes to play. The main messages are of the types "note on" and "note off".

Using MIDI you can play notes on one keyboard and have them come out of many keyboards at the same time.

Using MIDI you could record your keyboards notes on a computer (this is called sequencing) and then get the computer, later, to tell the keyboard to play those notes the same every time, so you can jam along with another instrument.

Some effects units use MIDI to change their programs too. So my old guitar multi FX could tell my old reverb unit to change programs every time it did.

Importantly, MIDI can not carry an audio signal. Only note on, note off, and a bunch of settings and data like program changes.

You can get MIDI plugs for your computer pretty cheaply these days, and some keyboards come with a program like Cubase LE to do the sequencing with.
 
#4
Ok ,

If you're using a desktop PC, you can buy internal soundcards that have MIDI plug sockets on them , so you would use a MIDI cable to go from the out put of the keyboard to the MIDI Input on the soundcard.

If your using a laptop or you dont want to splash out the cash in a decent soundcard for the desktop you can get MIDI to USB cables, i use one of these with my laptop. typically they have a USB plug and one end and 2 MIDI plugs and the other, a MIDI In and a MIDI Out.

There's a wealth of information on the net about MIDI and MIDI equipment.

Typically MIDI is used in conjunction with software sequencers (Like Cubase) to create virtual instruments , so to speak. So for example, if you want to create a drum track, using the soundcard, or a certain type of software, when you press a key on your MIDI keyboard it would sound like a smare, drum, or a bass drum kick, or a high hat. Each key on the keyboard would have a different sound. And its not just drum sounds, you can have any type of sound, guitar, paino, sax, any instrument you can think of, depending on the software or sound card, you can recreate it digitally. the only sound that MIDI cannot recreate is the human voice.

i probably haven't explained it very well, but i like i say there are lots of sights on the internet about MIDI. i'd recommend just doing some reading finding out what you need to set up a basic set up and just start playing around and learning what it can do and having fun with it.
 
#5
Have you ever seen a "player piano?" It was originally an instrument invented in the 1800s that could "play itself" through a clockwork mechanism that read a "piano roll," which was a continuous sheet of heavy-duty paper or linen with holes punched in it.

As the holes would travel past the actuator, they would instruct different piano keys to play. In the decades before acoustic recording became possible, in fact, many celebrated pianists (e.g. Scott Joplin) would actually record piano rolls, which could be purchased and played back on a player-piano, so that the purchaser could have a "performance" by the artist anytime he wanted.

Well, this essentially how MIDI works. MIDI instructions are like the holes in the piano-roll, telling the "instrument" (which in this case is typically an electronic synthesiser) what not to play, how loud to play it, when to start playing and when to stop, etc.

MIDI instructions are like a computer program. Without an instrument (synthesiser, etc.) to play, they mean nothing. They're just instructions.

A MIDI setup on any instrument (typically keyboard, but can be a guitar or bass, etc.) is just a way to send these instructions to a synthesiser to tell it what to play. The nice thing here is that you can get pretty much ANY MIDI keyboard, cheap as you want, and it will "trigger" the synthesiser.

These days, most synths exist as part of computer program packages, such as Ableton Live (which I use), and they accept MIDI data to "trigger" the software synthesisers to play.

For the cost of a modest laptop computer (say around US$1,000) and one of these programs (The "beefiest" version of Live is only around US$900), plus a cheap MIDI keyboard (say US$100), you have an entire orchestra at your fingertips.

Add to that, the fact that you can trigger these software synthesisers using a bass or guitar, and the possibilities certainly present themselves.
 
#7
I played in a heavily sequenced, drum machine/synthesizer pop band back in the mid 80s.
We relied heavily on MIDI to generate our sound live.

The piano roll analogy above is exactly correct. In fact, one of the views in Cakewalk (at least older versions of it) was called piano roll.
It also contains note on, note off, duration, velocity (how hard you pressed/struck the key/pad), as well as control information (patch names, patch changes, volume starting point and up/down, effects parameters, etc.).

We had both full synths (Yamaha DX7's and DX5's, Roland JX8P and D50, Korg Poly800) plus modules like the Proteus and Roland MT32. Our MIDI rig was pretty sophisticated for the time (not so much now) as we used a JLCooper MIDI patchbay/router to send receive signals and redistribute them from two MIDI ports on our PC.
Greek?

Let's try it this way. I played bass and sometime guitar. Another guy played the keys and we had a singer - plus the computer/MIDI rig.

The MIDI signal did lots. When we first walked onto the stage, I pressed the space bar on the computer - which started our first song. The drums were drum machine, the bass line from one of the MT32 channels. Horns came from the proteus, the keyboard player was playing stacked sounds from the DX7 and the D50. All of the patch changes and volumes were controlled by the computer and happened right on cue.

The guitar started with a distorted rhythm with crunchy bar chords, Once the vocal started it went to that 80s, ultra clean with loads of chorus tone. The MIDI file instructed the processor to change patches and adjusted the volume down. I didn't step on a pedal, the computer made the change for me.
When the verse ended there was a short guitar solo, the MIDI file instructed the patch change to a lead tone, with a little reverb and volume boost. As I played the last note the MIDI file turned the volume down and the reverb up slightly, then switched the patch back to the clean tone just as I hit the notes for the second verse.

It's not "unlike" playing to a pre-recorded track - except take away the DX7 and you lose a keyboard track, because the MIDI file was actually playing a DX7 that was sitting on the stage. If I were to walk over to that DX7 and pull it's volume lever down, then the sounds would've disappeared from the mix.
With the guitar, I still played the guitar, but the MIDI file was in total control of the guitar rack processor, which was a multi-effect unit. So it controlled the guiatrs volume and patches, including distortion.

We programmed all of the information, in detail, into the MIDI sequence during rehearsals. I never stepped on the wrong pedal or turned up too loud (or not enough) for solos. The MIDI track did all of that for me, precisley the same every time.

This was done on a IBM286 running Cakewalk DOS 5.1 - before Windows even existed.
 
#8
Fred19137 said:
I was really just wonder what it did. I tried to read it on Wikipedia, but you cannot expect much. I guess somehow it can hook up to your computer, how do I do that if I don't have a MIDI plug. What other things could I use this MIDI ability for? thank you

the reason why I ask this is because I am looking for a keyboard that has the "hammer-action", "wieghted-keys" feel that I can also rack out some decent sounds. And some of these keyboards I have been looking at keep mentioning the MIDI properties it possesses, which to me sounds like my spanish class(I don't understand a thing!). I just want to know If this is something I should invest in.
Click to expand...

Something that is now kinda universal is new midi keyboards all have a USB plug on them. This gives you the ability to plug it into your Mac/Pc and use soft synths( computer programs that simulate keys, synths, drums, ect) very easily. If you are going to get a hammer action, something like a real piano to do this check out the Yamaha. I think it's the KX-88. Most of the time when you want a realistic action you have to have a full size keyboard. Also when you get a keyboard like this it will have midi in/out/thru on the back of the keyboard. There is even an adapter that you can get that has a usb plug on one end and a pair of midi plugs on the other if you are hooking up to older gear.

Midi controllers and setting up the stuff can get tricky, but once you get the hang of it it's not like Spanish any more. I got a Roland foot keyboard kinda like a moog taurus to lay down sounds with. The original programing was interesting. Some times you get something to work and u wonder what you did, but in the end it can be very rewarding and can put another dimension in your music.

Hope this helps, the other answers that above give some important info about midi, but as far as hooking it up to a computer it's way easier today than 5 or 10 years ago.

Rock on:bassist:
 

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