What is midi

Traditional MIDI is one directional. A special type of cable known as a MIDI cable no surprises there is used to make these connections. Each wire is actually made of 3 wires, two are used for data transmission and one is a shield. Each one of these channels will have its own specified note, velocity, pitch bend etc.

This is common in most modern synths or MIDI keyboards. On top of these standardized numbers. This defines tempo and allows you to sync various equipment together. Now before you accuse me of trying to make you eat a keyboard sandwich…. You can see at the bottom another small graph, this is the velocity of each note between 0 and as I mentioned earlier. This stored data is then played back on whatever virtual instrument you have loaded onto that particular track.

And the beauty is you can change it with a single click. It can go from a piano sound to a flute, even to the sound of a barking dog if you are that way inclined. Sequencers have many advantages and allow you to craft a track with amazing accuracy. You can ensure a note starts exactly on time and is played for exactly as long as you wish down to a 32nd of a note for example. If you played a wrong note when inputting the MIDI, that is also not a problem.

Simply drag and drop it where it was meant to go. In Ableton Live, you can switch between a drawing cursor that looks like a pencil to add new notes, or to click on existing ones to remove them.

Or you can switch to an edit cursor which will allow you to lengthen, shorten or change notes. Beware though, as too much correction in some instruments just creates really robotic sounding music with no character. Or transpose a track up a few octaves with just the click of a button.

MIDI really does give you a lot of flexibility when it comes to shaping how your music sounds. As I said above, you can manually enter notes into your piano roll using just your mouse cursor within your DAW software and then adjust other settings within that afterward. But doing it this way is a long process and not very intuitive. Below is a picture of my Novation Impulse So if you tried to plug it into an amplifier or speaker without going through a sound module or virtual instrument in a DAW first, nothing would happen.

In the image, you can just about make out my Novation Bass-station synth on the left. This is the case with most modern synthesizers as I explained in this recent article.

When you play a series of notes on one of these instruments it will send MIDI data for the note played a number between 0 and and a series of other numbers for velocity, pitch bend etc. If you are using traditional MIDI 5 pin cables you are unlikely to have a MIDI in port in your computer, therefore you must use some sort of interface.

Or more common and what I would recommend is to connect to a general audio interface such as this one which has inpits for MIDI but also other types of instruments, microphones etc. If your MIDI keyboard or other device is more modern, it is likely to just use a USB connection and this can be plugged straight into the computer without the need for an interface. But your computer has now just received a series of numbers, this alone will not produce a sound. To do this you must have some sort of virtual instrument within your DAW to which these numbers will be applied and a sound will be produced.

Or in many, such as Ableton Live, a huge library of instruments comes pre-loaded into the software. A MIDI signal can also be sent to other machines which can interpret these signals and subsequently produce a sound. This could be a synthesizer module or a sound module which comes loaded with sounds. So, for example, say you wanted the level of the track to change during the chorus to make it stand out, or even if you want to change elements of the EQ mid-song.

This is done in many pieces of DAW software by simply making these changes yourself in real time as the track is recording. Typical input methods available on MIDI controllers are piano keys and pressure sensitive pads, but most include knobs and sliders for controlling other parameters as well. MIDI requires special cables to connect with your digital music gear. You may have seen these funny, circular cables with an odd number of pins before.

In this situation you may have to use special cables or converter boxes to interface with devices using the 5-pin connector.

Information flows in one direction per MIDI connection. The correct way to connect them can be a bit confusing depending on the situation. To get it right you have to follow the direction of your signal flow. The output of the device sending MIDI information must always be connected to the input of the device you intend to receive it. Remember—you can set each device to a different channel and use a single stream of MIDI to control them all. There are as many ways to use MIDI as there are musicians.

But there are some typical MIDI workflows that most producers should understand. With the help of VST plugins this setup turns your MIDI controller into whatever you want it to be: Millions of different synths, drum machines, guitars, flutes, horns, or pretty much anything else you can dream up. You can edit sequences in the piano roll and and input notes manually the help of the controller to play your parts.

That means you can use all your digital tools and techniques to input and edit notes and play them back with a real synthesizer—or any other MIDI capable device. This setup is like a mini DAW rig made up of entirely hardware gear. This is how most producers used MIDI before computers were cheap enough to be commonly used in music.

The original architects of the protocol did a fantastic job of creating a way for digital instruments to communicate. For one thing, the power and speed of even the simplest modern digital gear is light years ahead of what designers were working with in the 80s. All this has led to the development of the all new MIDI 2.

MIDI gives you access to every sound you can think of and all the editing power you need to make your music production fast and seamless.

Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content. Manufacturers needed a simple way to make their products compatible with those of other brands. Sometimes, when using drum pads or buttons, a toggle style functionality may be desirable.

When using a toggle setting the OFF messages are not being sent when the pad is released. Most commonly referred to as a CC , this message consist of a controller number and a value ranging from Most hardware encoders, such as knobs and faders, will send these types of messages. Often encoders will have the ability to change the control change number they are sending. This flexibility allows a single encoder to have the ability to control multiple parameters such as volume, filter cutoff, effect mix, etc.

The following list shows the standard use for these controller numbers when controlling MIDI hardware. The controller assignments in bold are the most commonly used.

Also known as a "patch change", these messages are commonly used to tell hardware or software to change a patch preset. When using General MIDI, the program change number will be affiliated with a particular type of patch. Most virtual instrument companies will not follow this standard since their sound sets are unique. Here is the list of program changes and what patch they refererence when using the General MIDI standard:.