Yamaha MIDI BASICS User Manual

MIDI Basics

1. What’s MIDI? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2. What You Can Do With MIDI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3. MIDI Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4. MIDI Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1. What’s MIDI?

MIDI is an acronym that stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a technology that allows

electronic musical instruments to communicate with each other, by sending and receiving performance infor­mation.

Just what do we mean by “performance information”? Let’s consider what happens when a pianist per-

forms.

The pianist presses a key on a piano or presses a pedal.

These actions are instances of “performance information” and
reflect how the pianist played the instrument. MIDI is used to
capture and express this information electronically. When you
strongly play middle C on a MIDI keyboard, MIDI indicates the
key number as 60, and the strength of playing as 120, for exam­ple. In this way, MIDI precisely describes your performance infor­mation in digital form.

This performance information—MIDI data—can be
transmitted between MIDI-compatible musical instruments, or

saved as a file for later playback. No matter what instrument or
computer you use, the MIDI data will reproduce the original per­formance exactly the same. (Keep in mind that the actual sound
of the performance may differ from instrument to instrument—
for example, the acoustic piano sound on one instrument may
sound more full and rich than on another—but the basic perfor­mance will be identical.)

The MIDI data saved as a file can easily be changed. For

example, you can change an incorrectly played note to the cor­rect one, change the song tempo, transpose the song to a desired
key, etc. This feature of MIDI is very effective for creating a song
or practicing with a musical instrument.

1

2. What You Can Do With MIDI

By connecting multiple MIDI devices (musical instruments and/or computer) with a cable, the MIDI data

can be transmitted and received. For example, if you record your keyboard performance as a MIDI data, the
recorded data can be transmitted to another instrument (or computer) and played back on it. You can even edit
that data on the computer. You can also buy MIDI data (computer files) of your favorite songs from Internet
websites (such as yamahamusicsoft.com) and listen to the data by playing it back on your instrument or com­puter.
Generally, MIDI cable is used for connecting an instrument to another instrument, and USB cable is used for
connecting instruments to a computer. For details, refer to the owner’s manual of your instrument.

NOTE

MIDI data has the following advantages over audio data:

• The data size is much smaller than audio data such as mp3, wav, etc.

• The data can be effectively and easily edited.

(Example 1) Using one keyboard to control a second, connected keyboard

MIDI instrument

MIDI OUT MIDI IN

MIDI transmit

(Example 2) Recording your keyboard performance to computer and editing the data

Edited data can be played back on the keyboard again.

MIDI instrument

USB cable

USB TO HOST

NOTE

Proper sequencer software must be installed to the computer in order to edit MIDI data.

USB

Computer

(Example 3) Playing back MIDI data which you have bought from an Internet website on

your instrument

The MIDI data can be loaded to your instrument via USB flash memory.

USB flash memory

Internet website

NOTE

In order to connect USB flash memory, your instrument must have a USB TO DEVICE terminal.

USB USB TO DEVICE

MIDI instrument

2