Appendix E: Taking The Vex Out Of Hex - Peavey PC1600X User Manual

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Taking The Vex Out Of Hex, When Working With MIDI Messages.
MIDI, of course is an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface".
Contrary to the opinion of some, MIDI was not created to complicate matters, but to allow musicians to do
what was once thought to be impossible. Never the less the "Digital" part of MIDI means the actual
messages are digits (numbers).
Fortunately, MIDI numbers often refer to aspects of musical performance. As a matter of fact, MIDI is not
too different from music notation. For example, each symbol represents something done musically. To play
written music, you actually translate what's on the page into a musical performance. With MIDI, the
computers inside MIDI devices actually translate your playing into "MIDI Speak" which is then forwarded
to connected devices. This "MIDI Speak' includes messages such as what note you played, How hard it was
played, how long it was played, Held etc. Most of the time, this is of little concern since MIDI software and
instruments often allow plug & play operation. However, occasionally, an understanding of MIDI messages
can be very handy.
The Numbers...
MIDI messages can he described in any of three numbering systems below:
* Binary
* Decimal
* Hexadecimal
Computers, and therefore the processors inside MIDI devices, use the binary system where data consists of
zeros and ones.
128 64
7
2 2
1 or 0 1 or 0
With binary, the value is either "On" (1) or "Off (0). These values are known as "bits" (short for binary
digits). Typically, bits come in groups of eight, which are referred to as "bytes".
They Look Like This:
1111 1111
0000 0000
0011 1010
1010 1011
32
6 5
2
1 or 0
Peavey PC1600X User Manual (rev-h)
16 8
4 3
2 2
1 or 0 1 or 0
51
Appendix E
4 2
2 1
2 2
1 or 0 1 or 0
1
0
2
1 or 0