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B About MIDI
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface,
a world-wide standard for exchang-
ing performance data among
computers
and electronic musical
instruments.
An instru-
ment conforming to the MIDI standard, no matter what kind or who made it, can send and
receive performance data.
This MIDI data is not music itself, but rather a way of handling
a variety of digitally-encoded messages telling the instrument what to do.
@ MIDI data Exchange
MIDI data exchange is not that difficult to understand.
@ MIDI Connections
MIDI data exchange
is acheived through three connectors.
MIDI cables are used to
connect these connectors in whatever arrangement
you need for a particular job.
MIDI IN:
MIDI data is received from other devices.
MIDI OUT:
Data is sent to other devices.
MIDI THRU:
The data sent to MIDI IN is sent back
out, unchanged.
ж You can use the MIDI THRU connector to "daisy chain" several MIDI devices together
so that they all receive the same
MIDI data stream.
connected this way is about the limit.
However,
four or five devices
Time delays and signal degradation increase with
the addition of more devices, causing "glitches" and data transmission errors.
@ MIDI Channels
Data for a number of different MIDI devices can be sent over the same MIDI cable.
This
is the result of the MIDI Channel concept.
A MIDI Channel is a lot like a TV Channel.
As you switch channels, you see completely
different programs; but this information is only received when the channel on your TV
is set to the same channel that the TV station is broadcasting on.
Broadcast
Television signals of many
broadcast stations pass through the cable
Station A
from the antenna,
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Only the program of the selected channel will be seen.
MIDI
has channels
numbered
1-16, and MIDI
data
on
any
one
channel
is sent to all
instruments set to receive on that same channel.
For example, playing a keyboard with
the MIDI channel set like the following will play only sound source B.
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