MIDICraft's MIDINET CD-ROM

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Text File | 1996-09-18 | 14.9 KB | 436 lines

MIDICraft's Brief Overview of MIDI. By Kevan R.Craft and Gareth R.Craft Music technology has come a long way in the last 12 years between 1980 and the 1990s. There have been many important developments, but the most important has been the creation and development of MIDI -- the Musical Instrument Digital Interface. At the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention in January of 1983, music history was made when a Roland JP-6 and a Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 communicated with each other via MIDI cables. This was the first time this had been done with independently developed products from different manufacturers. Back in 1983, MIDI was the new kid on the block and nobody really knew what to make of it. These days, MIDI is a fact of our musical lives. There are MIDI cables, MIDI keyboards, MIDI sequencers, MIDI drum machines, and dozens of other MIDI products (both musical and non- musical). But MIDI itself isn't a cable or a keyboard or a drum machine or anything like that. It's really just paper and ink -- a printed document describing a bunch of computer commands and a couple pieces of hardware. This document, officially called The Detailed MIDI Specification (or MIDI Spec), defines a communications standard for electronic musical instruments.Here's what it's all about. GENERAL DEFINITION MIDI is not a piece of software, or a piece of hardware, or cables, or anything like that. This is what MIDI is: MIDI is an agreement between people. A bunch of people got together, and decided to assign specific numbers to certain things. For example, Middle C was given the number 60. So, when you play Middle C on your keyboard, the number 60 zips along the cable. That's all MIDI is -- an agreement that certain numbers will mean certain musical things. Oh, and MIDI also specified what the cable would look like. That's basically it! SPECIFIC DEFINITION Musical... Computer communications standards are developed all the time as a way of stimulating development in computer and related industries. For example, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, or ASCII ("ask-key"), is a standard for how computers represent the characters of the English language (e.g., the capital letter A is number 65). MIDI was developed as a communications standard for musical instruments. The MIDI Spec (which is the written down agreement between people referred to earlier) lists commands that pertain specifically to musical events like playing notes and pressing sustain pedals (e.g., the note Middle C is number 60). ...Instrument... MIDI was designed specifically for musical instruments. One of the very first incarnations of MIDI was something called the Universal Synthesizer Interface. Many people think of synthesizers just as keyboards. But today, keyboard synthesizers are only a part of the entire MIDI world. There are also guitar synths, drum synths, violin synths, and even vocal synths. In fact, just about any traditional acoustic instrument can be MIDI-ed. In addition to musical instruments, many other types of electronic devices use MIDI as well, like effects processors and lighting consoles. There are even "instruments" that are just electronic cards you stick into your computer. Virtually any device with a micro- processor in it can use MIDI if it is programmed to understand the commands listed in the MIDI Spec. Because all MIDI devices have micro-processors, you can think of them as just another type of computer that's programmed for a very specific application. ...Digital... As mentioned, MIDI instruments communicate with each other by sending numbers back and forth along MIDI cables. Numbers are the only thing that MIDI instruments can respond to. Sometimes people get the idea that MIDI instruments have special musical properties or that they somehow "understand" music itself. That isn't true at all. Music and sound can't be communicated over a MIDI cable. Actions like playing a note on a keyboard or pressing a sustain pedal must be translated into numbers before they mean anything to a MIDI instrument. ...Interface Interface, as it is used here, refers to the ability of two (or more) devices to communicate with each other using the commands in the MIDI Spec. Because it's just paper and ink, MIDI itself doesn't provide the physical connection between two devices -- that's what MIDI cables are for. People often confuse MIDI (the document) with a piece of hardware called a MIDI interface. The term "MIDI interface" is usually used to describe a piece of hardware that you connect to a computer running MIDI software. Most computers don't have MIDI plugs built into them. If you want to connect a MIDI instrument to a computer you need a set of MIDI plugs to connect it with. That's all a MIDI interface really is -- a set of MIDI plugs that allows a personal computer (or MIDI device) to be connected to (or "interfaced" with) other MIDI devices. MIDI PORTS In order for something to be called a piece of MIDI equipment it has to have at least one MIDI port. There are three types of ports: MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and MIDI THRU. *********** Each type of port has one (and only one) function:*********** MIDI IN ports can only receive MIDI data. MIDI OUT ports can only send MIDI data. MIDI THRU ports can only pass along (or "send out") the exact same MIDI data that is received at the MIDI IN port. MIDI CONNECTIONS No matter how many MIDI devices you have in a MIDI setup there are really only two ways to connect MIDI devices that make any sense: MIDI OUTs should only be connected to MIDI INs. MIDI THRUs should only be connected to MIDI INs. Connecting OUTs to OUTs, INs to INs, THRUs to THRUs, or THRUs to OUTs won't get you anywhere! MIDI CHANNELS You may have heard that there are 16 MIDI channels. That's true. But it's important to make the distinction that these channels are not discrete physical things like the audio channels on a mixing board. They're just numeric designations that are sent as part of most MIDI messages. These designations tell other MIDI devices if they are supposed to act on a particular MIDI message or just ignore it. When you press a key on a MIDI keyboard connected to another MIDI device, a short digital message (3 numbers) passes down the MIDI cable. The MIDI channel is part of the first number of that message. Only devices that are "listening" to that channel will respond. To make sure that an instrument is "listening" to a particular channel its MIDI mode must be set properly and its MIDI receive channel must be set to match the channel of the appropriate transmitting device. This is what allows you to send a patch change number to only one channel, for example. CONCLUSION Although this little overview is very basic and sketchy, we hope it helps you get started. For more information, check out your local music store -- they're sure to have one (or more) of the excellent Introduction to MIDI books that is currently available. Have a look at the detailed bibliography on MIDI books published by MIDICraft.. General MIDI Patch Assignments. Every file in the MIDICraft Catalogue is a General MIDI file. Although General MIDI means a lot of things, in our files it means that patch changes have been inserted at the beginning of each track in the file. These patch changes will automatically set the MIDI channels to the "correct" patches, according to the General MIDI patch list. There are many advantages to this. The obvious one is that if you have a "General MIDI" synth (i.e., one where the manufacturer has set the patches according to the GM chart), you can just press PLAY on your sequencer and have every piece come out right. BUT THERE IS ANOTHER MAJOR ADVANTAGE AS WELL... We've saved the names of the tracks in both Amiga and MSDOS type 1 files not all sequencers read the track names when they open a MIDI file. So, if you have one of those sequencers, how will you know what instrument should be assigned to each track? Simple -- just check the initial patch, and compare it to the chart below! You'll know right away what the instrument should be. So, General MIDI patch changes can be very helpful even if you don't have a General MIDI instrument. The only risk is that you'll press PLAY in your sequencer, and if you don't have a General MIDI setup, then your MIDI rig will be reconfigured. You can avoid this by (1) deleting the patch changes from the file before you play the file, OR (2) changing the patch numbers in the file to correspond to your setup. Here is the complete General MIDI list of patch numbers, and the corresponding musical/instrumental sound. We've shown the general organization of the sounds into groups of 8. **************************************************** 1-8 Piano Sounds **************************************************** 1 Acoustic Grand Piano 2 Bright Acoustic Piano 3 Electric Grand Piano 4 Honky-tonk Piano 5 Electric Piano 1 6 Electric Piano 2 7 Harpsichord 8 Clav **************************************************** 9-16 Pitched Percussion Sounds **************************************************** 9 Celesta 10 Glockenspiel 11 Music Box 12 Vibraphone 13 Marimba 14 Xylophone 15 Tubular Bells 16 Dulcimer **************************************************** 17-24 Organ Sounds **************************************************** 17 Drawbar Organ 18 Percussive Organ 19 Rock Organ 20 Church Organ 21 Reed Organ 22 Accordian 23 Harmonica 24 Tango Accordian **************************************************** 25-32 Guitar Sounds **************************************************** 25 Acoustic Guitar (nylon) 26 Acoustic Guitar (steel) 27 Electric Guitar (jazz) 28 Electric Guitar (clean) 29 Electric Guitar (muted) 30 Overdriven Guitar 31 Distortion Guitar 32 Guitar Harmonics **************************************************** 33-40 Bass Sounds **************************************************** 33 Acoustic Bass 34 Electric Bass (finger) 35 Electric Bass (pick) 36 Fretless Bass 37 Slap Bass 1 38 Slapp Bass 2 39 Synth Bass 1 40 Synth Bass 2 **************************************************** 41-48 Strings, and Timpani **************************************************** 41 Violin 42 Viola 43 Cello 44 Contrabass 45 Tremolo Strings 46 Pizzicato Strings 47 Harp 48 Timpani **************************************************** 49-56 String Ensembles and Choral **************************************************** 49 String Ensemble 1 50 String Ensemble 2 51 SynthStrings 1 52 SynthStrings 2 53 Choir Aahs 54 Voice Oohs 55 Synth Voice 56 Orchestra Hit **************************************************** 57-64 Brass Sounds **************************************************** 57 Trumpet 58 Trombone 59 Tuba 60 Muted Trumpet 61 French Horn 62 Brass Section 63 SynthBrass 1 64 SynthBrass 2 **************************************************** 65-72 Reed Sounds **************************************************** 65 Soprano Sax 66 Alto Sax 67 Teno Sax 68 Baritone Sax 69 Oboe 70 English Horn 71 Bassoon 72 Clarinet **************************************************** 73-80 Flute-type Sounds **************************************************** 73 Piccolo 74 Flute 75 Recorder 76 Pan Flute 77 Blown Bottle 78 Shakuhachi 79 Whistle 80 Ocarina **************************************************** 81-88 Synth Lead Sounds **************************************************** 81 Lead 1 (square) 82 Lead 2 (sawtooth) 83 Lead 3 (calliope) 84 Lead 4 (chiff) 85 Lead 5 (charang) 86 Lead 6 (voice) 87 Lead 7 (fifths) 88 Lead 8 (bass + lead) **************************************************** 89-96 Synth Pad Sounds **************************************************** 89 Pad 1 (new age) 90 Pad 2 (warm) 91 Pad 3 (polysynth) 92 Pad 4 (choir) 93 Pad 5 (bowed) 94 Pad 6 (metallic) 95 Pad 7 (halo) 96 Pad 8 (sweep) **************************************************** 97-104 Synth Effects **************************************************** 97 FX 1 (rain) 98 FX 2 (soundtrack) 99 FX 3 (crystal) 100 FX 4 (atmosphere) 101 FX 5 (brightness) 102 FX 6 (goblins) 103 FX 7 (echoes) 104 FX 8 (sci-fi) **************************************************** 105-112 Ethnic Instruments **************************************************** 105 Sitar 106 Banjo 107 Shamisen 108 Koto 109 Kalimba 110 Bagpipe 111 Fiddle 112 Shanai **************************************************** 113-120 Percussion Sounds **************************************************** 113 Tinkle Bell 114 Agogo 115 Steel Drums 116 Woodblock 117 Taiko Drum 118 Melodic Tom 119 Synth Drum 120 Reverse Cymbal **************************************************** 121-128 Sound Effects **************************************************** 121 Guitar Fret Noise 122 Breath Noise 123 Seashore 124 Bird Tweet 125 Telephone Ring 126 Helicopter 127 Applause 128 Gunshot ********************************************************** General MIDI Percussion Drum Note Assignments. ********************************************************** NOTE: THE NUMBERS ARE NOT PATCH NUMBERS -- THEY ARE NOTE ASSIGNMENTS 60 = MIDDLE C THESE NOTE NUMBERS MUST BE SENT OUT OVER MIDI CHANNEL 10, WHICH IS RESERVED FOR PERCUSSION **************************************************** 35 Acoustic Bass Drum 36 Bass Drum 1 37 Side Stick 38 Acoustic Snare 39 Hand Clap 40 Electric Snare 41 Low Floor Tom 42 Closed Hi Hat 43 High Floor Tom 44 Pedal Hi-Hat 45 Low Tom 46 Open Hi-Hat 47 Low-Mid Tom 48 Hi-Mid Tom 49 Crash Cymbal 1 50 High Tom 51 Ride Cymbal 1 52 Chinese Cymbal 53 Ride Bell 54 Tambourine 55 Splash Cymbal 56 Cowbell 57 Crash Cymbal 2 58 Vibraslap 59 Ride Cymbal 2 60 Hi Bongo 61 Low Bongo 62 Mute Hi Conga 63 Open Hi Conga 64 Low Conga 65 High Timbale 66 Low Timbale 67 High Agogo 68 Low Agogo 69 Cabasa 70 Maracas 71 Short Whistle 72 Long Whistle 73 Short Guiro 74 Long Guiro 75 Claves 76 Hi Wood Block 77 Low Wood Block 78 Mute Cuica 79 Open Cuica 80 Mute Triangle 81 Open Triangle