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How it all started:

About 25 years ago, when synthesisers (synths) and "Personal Computers" (PC's) were just starting to become popular, each synth manufactured was basically a self-contained electronic box that generated its own unique set of sounds - with a keyboard attached to it. The only way to control the sounds that the synth made was to change the settings on the control panel and then play the keys on the attached keyboard. You often saw rock bands where the keyboardist was hidden behind stacks of keyboards... necessary because each one produced its own characteristic sound and the only way to control it was to play it live.

A few years later, a method was worked out that allowed the sounds produced by a synth to be controlled by a set of codes - codes that could be sent to it via a cable that plugged into a port on the synth itself. So now, in addition to creating sound by physically playing notes on the attached keyboard, you could play the same sounds by sending it the right set of control codes via the cable.

Manufacturers also figured out how to add a tiny computer into the keyboard section which would send out a set of control codes from the keys when they were played, which described the details of which keys were being pressed, how hard they were being hit, etc.

So basically what happened was that the traditional synth was split into two parts:

1) An electronic circuit that produced sound according to a set of coded instructions.

2) A keyboard that sent out a set of coded instructions to describe which keys were being played.

This code was termed "MIDI" - which stands for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface."

And it set the stage for a new era in music...

Making the connection:

The two parts of the synth could simply be connected by a MIDI cable and they would operate just as before... but because the MIDI information was digital, and because it was standardized between different synthesizers, it opened up some important new possibilities.

For one, a single keyboard could now be used to control a large number of different synths. And synths did not need to have a keyboard attached to them - the actual electronics used to generate the sounds could be separated from the keyboard and housed in a much smaller, rack-mountable unit. So the previous heavy and difficult to move around towers of separate keyboards, could be replaced by a single MIDI keyboard and a small case of MIDI-controllable "tone-modules" made by the different synth manufactures to generate their unique sounds.

Secondly, a computer could now be used to record whatever a musician played on the keyboard. Because the synth had no way of knowing whether the MIDI information it was getting was being played live, or coming from a computer recording of a keyboard that had been played previously, or even if it was being created from a mathematical formula by the computer itself... it made no difference - it simply played the sounds back the same way!

So today, when we talk of a MIDI file, MIDI track, or MIDI recording... we are talking about some form of this code (which is really just a bunch of numbers) that is understood by synthesisers to play back its sounds.

The language of MIDI:

MIDI is an amazing concept which has made the modern age of digital music possible. And yet, at it heart, it is really quite simple:

A musical note can be described with just a few simple parameters:

• its pitch,
• its volume,
• the time that it starts
• the time that it ends

This is really all that is required to describe the basic sound of any given note. And this is basically what happens when a key is pressed on a keyboard.

• The pitch can be determined by looking at which key was pressed (from the 88 keys available). 
• The volume can be determined by looking at how hard that key was pressed.
• You can record the time that the key is first pressed,
• And then record the time that the key is released.

And there you have the basics of how MIDI is used to describe a note. Each note played has its own little package of numbers that describe these 4 basic parts of the note. Sending them to a MIDI synthesiser will then tell it which note to play, how loud to play it, and when to start and end it.

Of course, there are many other more subtle parts of musical expression such as vibrato, timbre, legato, and stylistic factors. And MIDI can be used to describe these as well...

Capturing all aspects of a performance using MIDI:

In general, MIDI can capture and describe anything that a human performer can do, including pressing the sustain or soft pedals of a piano, moving the pitch or modulation wheels on a synthesizer (or any other controls for that matter), the subtle pressure changes on a key while the key is held down, and even the different ways it can be pressed and released. All these things can be measured and described by numbers.

It is even possible, using different types of electro-mechanical devices (called transducers), to measure the breath variations of a sax player, the strums of a pick across a string, or the beat of a drum stick on a drum. All this information can be accurately and precisely translated into MIDI numbers, which, in turn, can be used to play back a synthetic instrument sound.

Of course, just because this information can be recorded, does not mean the synthesizer has the ability to play it back accurately! And this is the biggest difference between not only synths, but Soundfonts and Virtual Instruments which can be loaded into software and "played back" by MIDI.

Jayzen Virtual Instruments are designed to respond to many of these more subtle MIDI commands, thus allowing you to create more realistic sounds.

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MIDI has also gone on to be used to control many other things besides music. It can be used to control lights, amplifiers, cell phones, theatre equipment, special effects, robotics, animation, networking, and is commonly used to synchronize various digital devices within a recording studio.

Conclusions/Summary

The main point to understand about MIDI is that it is control information, not audio. There are no actual sounds travelling down a MIDI cable... just the instructions to make the sounds, which then need to be interpreted by some other device, such as a synthesizer, or a software sampler.

The benefits of MIDI are that it:

• allows music to be described using numbers, which can then be converted into digital information,
• can easily be recorded, edited, and played back on a computer,
• allows a single keyboard to control any number of synthesizers, software programs, etc.,
• is a standardized system and thus allows for all electronic devices to "talk" to each other,
• is a very compact and efficient method of storing information,
• is very powerful - allowing control not only of music, but almost any other electronic device.

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We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful.

If you have further questions and/or comments, please contact us.

Regards,

Jayzen Sound

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General overview of Virtual Instruments

Links to other websites with information on MIDI