INTRODUCTION TO MIDI
MIDI (Musical Instrumentation Digital Interface) is the communication specification defined by the
world's musical instrument manufacturers to allow one electronic device to talk to another. The specifi-
cation was initially intended to allow keyboards to communicate with other keyboards and computers,
and thus, the specification includes codes to represent note on, note off, volume dynamics, pitch bend,
patch change, etc. In fact, an examination of the controls of a synthesizer gives a good indication of the
types of commands that the MIDI specification covers — anything that you can control in the synth can
also be controlled through the use of MIDI.
A portion of the MIDI specification deals exclusively with music generation, i.e. note on, note off, pitch
bend, and other commands, the rest of the MIDI specification provides a means to control the function
of electronic hardware. The MIDI program and control change commands offer a wide range of possibil-
ities for controlling patch bays, internal routing of signals in mixers, effects units, and many other digi-
tally accessed audio related equipment. The ability of the PDS-3500, THE MIDI PEDAL, to store in
memory up to 1,984 different presets and transmit these MIDI control codes to various pieces of equip-
ment makes it a very powerful tool for the performing musician and MIDI studio.