MIDI Control

MIDI Control




MIDI Control




Music equipment language isn't just for audio anymore
Peter Kim | Make Vol. 07- 2006 | PDF | Pages: 8 | 3.63 MB


For centuries, musical notation has served as a common language among musicians- it was designed so that, for example, monks in France would sing the same melody as monks in Rome. But as the popularity of digital musical instruments grew throughout the 1980s, musicians found that their equipment lacked a common language.

There was no way to perform simple tasks like using one keyboard to play sounds on another, or to use a computer to record and edit what you were playing. The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was developed as a solution to this problem, and today, it's become a standard for the vast majority of music hardware and software. Its usefulness doesn't end there, however. The same structure that makes MIDI compatible with various music products can make it useful any time you need to send and receive messages for control.