7. MIDI Primer:
If you connect to external sound sources, you will need to use MIDI.
What is MIDI anyway? First, MIDI is an acronym for Musical
I
nstrument Digital Interface.
It is a standard or an agreement among the various musical instrument
manufacturers that we will all use the same kind of connections and
electrical signals so that any two musical instruments can be
connected together and work.
CONNECTIONS:
MIDI connections are all made with “5 pin DIN cables” that plug into
“5 pin din jacks” on the musical instruments. Only two wires are
used in these cables to carry the information from one instrument to
another. A MIDI Out jack is used by an instrument to send
information to another. A MIDI In jack is used by an instrument to
receive information from another.
SIGNALS:
The electrical signals of MIDI are digital, not analog. This ensures
that the communications will be exact. The expression “close
enough for rock-and-roll” doesn’t apply here. If you want to hear a
snare drum, but some of the time hear a bass drum instead, because
they are close to each other in the note table, you’d get upset.
Digital gives you exactly what you asked for.
The signals are serial, not parallel. This means you don’t need a
complicated or expensive cable to make the connection. One pair of
wires in the cable will do.
The signals are opto-coupled. Current flowing through the MIDI cable
turns on a tiny light inside a chip inside the receiving instrument
which ends up producing the electrical signal that the receiving
instrument uses. Wow! Cool, huh!? That means that there is no
ground connection
between the MIDI-connected instruments. This
eliminates 60 cycle hum from ground loops between these
instruments.
CONCEPTS & COMMANDS:
The main Concepts you need to understand are: MIDI Channels, MIDI
Notes
and MIDI Velocity.
The main Commands you need to understand are: MIDI Note On, MIDI
Note Off
, MIDI Program Change, and System Exclusive.
CONCEPTS
:
If we use a telephone line analogy, MIDI Channels are like phone
numbers. Sound Sources are like homes. MIDI Notes are like the
individual people in the individual homes that have that phone
number. MIDI Velocity is like the information you tell the person
you are talking to.
A separate MIDI Channel is usually assigned to each Sound Source you
are using (like a phone number per home). There are 16 different
MIDI Channels available (there’s a lot more phone numbers - you
probably have more friends than sounds sources!) To make MIDI
work for you, you need the Channel your sound source is set to
receive on, match the Channel your malletKAT PRO is sending on.
It’s that simple!
On the malletKAT PRO, you will set the Channel of your Controller 1
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