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1. What's MIDI? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. What You Can Do With MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. MIDI Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. MIDI Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.
What's MIDI?
MIDI is an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface,
electronic musical instruments to communicate with each other, by sending and receiving performance infor-
mation.
Just what do we mean by "performance information"?
forms.
The pianist presses a key on a piano or presses a pedal.
These actions are instances of "performance information" and
reflect how the pianist played the instrument. MIDI is used to
capture and express this information electronically. When you
strongly play middle C on a MIDI keyboard, MIDI indicates the
key number as 60, and the strength of playing as 120, for exam-
ple. In this way, MIDI precisely describes your performance infor-
mation in digital form.
This performance information—MIDI data—can be
transmitted
between MIDI-compatible musical instruments, or
saved as a file for later playback. No matter what instrument or
computer you use, the MIDI data will reproduce the original per-
formance exactly the same. (Keep in mind that the actual sound
of the performance may differ from instrument to instrument—
for example, the acoustic piano sound on one instrument may
sound more full and rich than on another—but the basic perfor-
mance will be identical.)
The MIDI data saved as a file can easily be changed.
example, you can change an incorrectly played note to the cor-
rect one, change the song tempo, transpose the song to a desired
key, etc. This feature of MIDI is very effective for creating a song
or practicing with a musical instrument.
MIDI Basics
Let's consider what happens when a pianist per-
For
1
a technology that allows
Related Manuals for Yamaha Basics
Summary of Contents for Yamaha Basics
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Page 1: Midi Basics
MIDI Basics 1. What’s MIDI? ......1 2. What You Can Do With MIDI....2 3. -
Page 2: What You Can Do With Midi
What You Can Do With MIDI By connecting multiple MIDI devices (musical instruments and/or computer) with a cable, the MIDI data can be transmitted and received. For example, if you record your keyboard performance as a MIDI data, the recorded data can be transmitted to another instrument (or computer) and played back on it. You can even edit that data on the computer. -
Page 3: Midi Channels
MIDI Channels MIDI performance data is assigned to one of sixteen MIDI channels. Using these channels, 1–16, the performance data for sixteen different instrument parts can be simultaneously sent over one cable. For example, when you play a song on your keyboard, the song contains many parts—right-hand part, left- hand part, rhythm part, bass part, etc. -
Page 4: Midi Messages
MIDI Messages MIDI data (messages) can be divided into two groups: Channel messages and System messages. The following explanation shows an example of MIDI messages. For more details about MIDI messages—for example, when you want to edit the recorded MIDI data—please refer to any of the fine MIDI guidebooks that are commercially available.