About Midi; Midi Channel - Yamaha S70XS Reference Manual

About MIDI

MIDI is an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, which allows electronic musical instruments to
communicate with each other, by sending and receiving compatible Note, Control Change, Program Change and
various other types of MIDI data, or messages. Data communication is assured even between musical instruments and
equipment from different manufacturers.
This synthesizer can control other MIDI devices by transmitting note related data and various types of controller data. It
can also be controlled by incoming MIDI messages which automatically determine the tone generator mode, select
MIDI channels, voices and effects, change parameter values, and of course play the voices specified for the various
Parts.
Many MIDI messages listed in the MIDI Data Format are expressed in decimal numbers, binary numbers and
hexadecimal numbers. Hexadecimal values have "H (hexadecimal)" at the beginning of the data line or at the end of the
values. Other lowercase characters (usually "n" or "x") represent any number.

MIDI Channel

MIDI performance data is assigned to one of sixteen MIDI channels. This allows the performance data for sixteen
different instrument parts to be simultaneously sent over one MIDI cable.
Think of the MIDI channels as TV channels. Each TV station
transmits its broadcasts over a specific channel. Your home TV
set receives many different programs simultaneously from
several TV stations and you select the appropriate channel to
watch the desired program.
MIDI operates on the same basic principle. The transmitting
instrument sends MIDI data on a specific MIDI channel (MIDI
Transmit Channel) via a single MIDI cable to the receiving instrument. If the receiving instrument's MIDI channel (MIDI
Receive Channel) matches the Transmit Channel, the receiving instrument will sound according to the data sent by the
transmitting instrument.
For detailed information on how to set the MIDI transmit channel and the MIDI receive channel, refer to
MIDI channels and MIDI ports
MIDI data is assigned to one of sixteen channels, and this synthesizer is capable of simultaneously
playing sixteen separate Parts, via the sixteen MIDI channels. However, the sixteen-channel limit can be
overcome by using separate MIDI "ports," each supporting sixteen channels. While a single MIDI cable
is equipped to handle data over up to sixteen channels simultaneously, a USB connection is capable of
handling far more—thanks to the use of MIDI ports. Each MIDI port can handle sixteen channels, and
the USB connection allows up to eight ports, letting you use up to 128 channels (8 ports x 16 channels)
on your computer. When connecting this instrument to a computer using a USB cable, the MIDI ports
are defined as follows:
Port 1
The tone generator block in this instrument can recognize and use only this port. When playing the S90
XS/S70 XS as a tone generator from the external MIDI instrument or computer, you should set the MIDI
Port to 1 on the connected MIDI device or computer.
MIDI cable
S90 XS/S70 XS
Reference Manual
Weather Report
News
1
2
page
MOTIF-RACK XS
Appendix
Basic Structure
Functional Blocks
Tone Generator
A/D Input
Arpeggio
Sequencer
Audio Record/Play
Controller
Effect
Internal Memory
Reference
Voice
Performance
Multi
SEQ Play
Master
Remote
File
Audio Rec/Play
Utility
2
Appendix
News
About MIDI
Display Messages
Troubleshooting
138.
146