Using The Cdx-1 With Other Midi Devices; Midi Fundamentals - Roland DiscLab CDX-1 Owner's Manual

Using the CDX-1 with other MIDI devices

MIDI Fundamentals

What is MIDI?
MIDI stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface." This is a worldwide
standard that was developed in order to allow music data and sound data to be
exchanged among electronic musical instruments and computers. Devices that are
MIDI-compatible can exchange music data according to their capabilities, even if
they are different types of device or were made by different manufacturers.
MIDI channels
MIDI allows data to be transmitted independently to multiple MIDI devices over a
single MIDI cable. This is made possible by the concept of "MIDI channels."
You can think of MIDI channels as being similar to television channels. Although
many broadcast channels are in the air at any one time (many channels of MIDI data
are moving through a single cable), a television set receives only the channel to
which it is set (the MIDI device receives only the channel to which it is set).
The same is true in the case of MIDI. If a transmitting device is set to MIDI channel
"1," the MIDI messages will be received by receiving devices that are also set MIDI
channel "1."
MIDI Implementation Chart
MIDI allows a wide variety of electronic musical instruments to communicate with
each other. However, it is not necessarily the case that every device is able to
transmit and receive every type of MIDI message. Only MIDI messages that are
supported by both devices can be conveyed.
The operating manual of every MIDI device includes a "MIDI implementation
chart." This chart makes it easy to see the types of MIDI message that can be
transmitted and received. When you wish to connect two MIDI devices, you should
compare their charts to see which types of MIDI message can be conveyed between
them.
For details on the MIDI
functionality of the CDX-1,
refer to "MIDI Implementation
chart" (p. 216).
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