Akai S950 Operator's Manual page 101

For example, play a note on the keyboard and the other instrument will play
that same note. Use the pitch bend wheel or modulation wheel and the other
synth will also respond. Furthermore, select a different sound on the
controlling synth and the other synth will change its sound also. Of course,
sometimes this is not always desirable and so it is possible to switch off
certain MIDI functions if you wish.
This is MIDI at its simplest and allows you layer two or more synths to
create a richer sound.
FIG. 1. Simplified layout of a typical synth or sampler
But there !s more to MIDI than dust layering synths and samplers together.
For example, there are 16 different MIDI channels you can work on. You can
think of this rather 1 ike a TV set. This too has a number of .channels and
coming down the aerial are all the TV channels simultaneously and you simply
select which channel you want to watch on the TV using the channel select
button. Similarly with MIDI. Going down the 5 pin MIDI lead are all 16 MIDI
channels and you have to select which channel you want your synth to receive.
For example, if synth i is transmitting MIDI channel 3, then synth 2 must be
set up to receive MIDI channel 2 otherwise it won't sound. Having said that,
there is a MIDI mode known as OMNI ON which sets your synth or sampler to
receive MIDI on all channels so it is not always necessary to match your
instruments MIDI channels up and some instruments. default to OMNI ON when
you switch it on.
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