Connecting Midi Devices - Korg Pa4X User Manual

Connecting MIDI devices |875

53 Connecting MIDI devices
Introduction to MIDI
Ports, channels, messages
What is MIDI?
MIDI stands for Musical Instruments Digital Interface. This interface lets
you connect two musical instruments, or a computer and various musical
instruments.
From a software point of view, MIDI is a protocol that describes messages for
playing notes and controlling them. It is sort of a grammar to let different
instruments and computers speak the same language, and let the one tell
the other what to do.
From a physical point of view, MIDI messages travel across the classic MIDI
interface or the USB port, a modern connector replacing the MIDI ports with
a single port and cable.
Pa4X can be connected to a Windows or Mac computer with no need of spe-
cial software. However, for full and easy use of all its MIDI features, we sug-
gest that you install the KORG USB MIDI Driver, a special software that you
can download from our web site (www.korg.com).
Channels and messages
Basically, a MIDI or USB cable transmits 16 channels of data. Think to each
MIDI channel as a TV channel: the receiver must be set on the same channel
of the transmitter. The same happens with MIDI messages: when you send
a Note On message on channel 1, it will be received on channel 1 only. This
allows for multitimbricity: you can have more than one sound playing on the
same MIDI instrument.