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Connecting MIDI devices |863
54
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.
Pa1000 can be connected to a Windows or Mac computer with no need of
special software. However, for full and easy use of all its MIDI features, we
suggest 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.
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