User Guide

4. ABOUT MIDI

For those who know MIDI, you may want to skip

this section and go to the next. However, if you are

new to MIDI or a bit rusty, this section is for you. A

complete tutorial on MIDI is beyond the scope of

this program. We recommend The MIDI Manual, by

David Huber, published by Butterworth-Heinemann.

MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital

Interface. It is a communication standard by which

aspects of a musical performance can be

recorded or transmitted between electronic

musical devices, such as synthesizers, in order to

trigger sounds, alter sounds, begin sequences of

events, and so on.

Musical performances consist of the SOUND of the

Music being performed, as well as the ACTIONS of

the musician on his instrument that produce the

sound. MIDI translates the ACTIONS that a musician

takes when he/she performs a piece of music into

data that represent them. For instance – When you

play a key on a piano you start a musical event –

a note. MIDI defines the beginning of a new note

a “NOTE ON” message. Similarly, when you release

a key, that musical event ends. MIDI defines the

end of a note as “NOTE OFF”. This allows for two

very important functions:

• A NOTE ON produced on a MIDI keyboard

can be sent to a different MIDI device to

play a sound.

• A NOTE ON message can be recorded and

played back in MIDI compatible software,

without recording the sound of the

performance. Thus the ACTIONS of the

performance are recorded and can be

played back or edited.

There are many more aspects to MIDI than just a

NOTE ON Message, for instance, every NOTE ON

has a VELOCITY value. Velocity corresponds to how

fast a key is pressed down which usually, as in a

Piano, corresponds to the loudness of the note that

sounds.