Article by: Terry Wilhite

This, my friends, is the article that I wish I could have put my hands on when I started tinkering with MIDI. Years ago, when I started making music electronically, nobody knew less about computers and music than I did. The learning continues, by the way, as technology evolves. But the one thing that I do know now, that I didn’t know then, is this: Making MIDI work isn’t rocket science! All of the links in the MIDI chain have to be present and working correctly but that’s not difficult. Those links are what I want to cover now.

Can your computer sing?
For the record, MIDI – Musical Instrument Digital Interface – is simply a way that digital instruments can talk to each other. Although that system is powerful, it needn’t be scary. MIDI doesn’t even demand very much of your computer. Even older machines, even as old as 486s, can process MIDI just fine (although they’ll probably not handle some of the newer MIDI and audio software packages very well). Hard drive space is not an issue with MIDI. When SMFs (Standard MIDI Files) are recorded – sequenced – all that is being recorded are digital commands: play this note, this loud, and hold it for this long. Even the longest of songs consume very little hard drive space. MIDI also works well with the minimum amount of RAM.

Of course, most computers today can easily play MIDI files. Typically today, a USB-based MIDI interface is used in simple MIDI setups. As for equipment, if you have a computer, you already have most of what it takes to have a nice MIDI music factory in your home or office.

The tie that binds
You’ll need a MIDI cable to link your synthesizer and MIDI interface. MIDI boxes are readily available that allow you to input MIDI on one side and output USB to your computer from the other side. Although your synthesizer will probably be fairly close to your computer, make sure you get MIDI cables that are long enough. You can always roll up excess but MIDI cables won’t stretch! By the time you snake it around this and that in your work area, you’ll need all the length you can get. Trust me.

Listen, this is key! Make sure the cables are connected properly. The cable end marked “OUT” goes into the “IN” port and the cable end marked “IN” goes in the OUT port. In other words, the signals go OUT of your computer IN to your keyboard. The signal goes OUT of your keyboard IN to your computer. If you match the cable end marked OUT to the OUT port on the synthesizer, MIDI will not work. Remember, it’s IN to OUT – OUT to IN. Basic, but a mistake I made in the very beginning.

Driving MIDI
When your soundcard was installed, most likely MIDI drivers were installed too. These little software components go virtually unnoticed – unless they’re missing! If you’ve experimented and listened to MIDI files, say off the Internet, most likely the MIDI drivers are loaded and will work fine. However, you’ll need to select IN and OUT drivers in the MIDI setup window in each MIDI software application that you use. In the MIDI driver setup window of your software, you’ll usually see two panes listing drivers: an IN and an OUT pane. There is an “IN” driver to receive incoming signals. There is an “OUT” driver to ship signals to your keyboard. For example, in the OUT pane, you’ll probably see a list of drivers such as: AWE64G Midi Synth (that’s the tone generator on your soundcard), AWE64G Midi Out – that’s the one you’ll pick to send MIDI signals to your synthesizer. Click on the driver of your choice in the list, press “OK” or “Save”. In case the drivers were not installed with your soundcard, don’t sweat it. The drivers are on the diskettes or CD that came with your sound card. Most instruction booklets offer easy “Step 1, 2, 3” advice.

Keys to your keyboard
Just remember, once your software is installed and the IN and OUT drivers are selected, you’ll need to put your synthesizer in the mode that allows instruments to receive MIDI signals simultaneously. We’ll get into terminology later but often it’s called the sequencer or “MULTI” mode. If the MIDI file you’re playing is General MIDI (GM) and your synthesizer is a GM keyboard, everything will sound right. (GM means that all the sounds are in the same MIDI positions on all GM instruments.) If something sounds like a train wreck, it probably means you’re not in the sequencer mode or the MIDI signal for a particular instrument is targeting the wrong sound on your keyboard. If that happens, you can make the “patch” or sound change in your music software. What’s a patch? Well, this is a good time to talk about a pet peeve of mine.

You can call me…
Somebody once said: “The nice thing about standards is that they’re so many to choose from.” MIDI is a digital language standard.

This is key! Know that patches, sounds, sound patches, programs, timbres, voices and instruments all mean basically the same thing. These terms all refer to the “noises” that your synthesizer can make. A “bank” is two or more patches or sounds on your synthesizer. Multi-timbral synthesizers can play up to 16 parts simultaneously such as strings, guitar, piano, bass and so on, because MIDI has 16 channels that it can use to send and receive commands. Depending on the manufacturer, the mode that allows multiple instruments to be played at once could be called a Performance, Multi, Combi, Global or something else. Remember, a sequence is nothing more than recorded MIDI commands. A sequencer records sequences. Most newer synthesizers have on-board sequencers. Of course, sequencer software is readily available. When these signals are recorded, they are recorded onto tracks.

There you have it: computer, MIDI Interface box, cable, driver, synthesizer – the links in the MIDI chain. Think it through and you’ll be mastering MIDI in no time!