87 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
87 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
From the Mad Dog/Allison music workshop...
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Basic Concepts in MIDI
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The Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, has become a major
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force in the music world today. It is incorporated into almost every
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professional synthesizer and is beginning to be used with other instruments,
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guitars being one. What follows is an introduction for those of you
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unfamiliar with MIDI.
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The most common application of MIDI involves synthesizers. Let's look
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at some terms as apply to synthesizers:
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Polyphonic vs. Monophonic: This term refers to how many individual
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notes a synthesizer can play simultaneously. Monophonic
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synthesizers can play only one, polyphonic can play two
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or more. Monophonic synthesizers are used mostly for lead
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parts or baselines. Sometimes synthesizers will have sixteen
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or more voices, more than will ever be played from the key-
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board at one time, for use with sequencers (which we'll
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discuss later).
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Programmable and preset: Programmable synthesizers allow the user
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to alter the sound of the instrument or create new sounds
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entirely. Preset synthesizers, such as the lower-end Casio
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and Yamaha instruments, have a certain number of pre-deter-
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mined sounds which cannot be changed.
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Split keyboards: Some synthesizers allow you to "split" the keyboard,
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setting part of it to play a particular sound and another part
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to play another sound.
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Doubling: Most keyboards that are splittable also have a "double"
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feature, where every time you strike a key, two or more
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different sounds are produced. This mode can create some
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interesting effects, but it drastically cuts down your
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available voices; if you have an eight-voice polyphonic
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keyboard, you can only play four-note chords in doubled
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mode.
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Touch and velocity sensitivity: Many keyboards have not just on/off
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switches for each key but components that sense what level
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of volume and force the notes are being played with. Through
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these features it is possible to inject emotion into the music
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being played in a way it is not possible to on other
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sythesizers.
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Sequencers: Some keyboards feature built-in sequencers, which can
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"record" digitally the keystrokes being played. It is possible,
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using a sequencer, to create a bass line to play to or even
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record an entire song by overdubbing multiple parts. External
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sequencers as well as computer software programs are also
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available which perform similar functions.
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A few technical details for the technical-detail-minded:
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MIDI Configuration: Six-pin connector, 16 channels
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(some system-exclusive)
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Pitch bender: 8 bits, quantized to nearest 128th pitch step
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128 recognized notes, 60=middle c (usually 261.626 hz)
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(mapped into existing keyboard if octave
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not available)
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Velocity/aftertouch: 0-64, defaults 0 and 64 for non-
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touch sensitive keyboards
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Tone data: (usually system exclusive)
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System commands: song pos, song sel, tune, clock, command ch
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(not on all synthesizers)
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Coming soon to a conference near you: GUITAR MEETS MIDI!
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==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==
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