What’s So Great About Midi Home Recording?

Word Count:
349

Summary:
In a previous article on my website, I explained how to set up several MIDI instruments in a “daisy chain” that will allow you to play several electronic instruments at once from your MIDI keyboard. I then explained how you can use MIDI channels to allow each instrument in the chain to play different notes and sequences by setting them up to respond to and ignore messages on particular MIDI channels that you transmit from your MIDI keyboard. Setting things up this way allows ...


Keywords:
MIDI


Article Body:
In a previous article on my website, I explained how to set up several MIDI instruments in a “daisy chain” that will allow you to play several electronic instruments at once from your MIDI keyboard. I then explained how you can use MIDI channels to allow each instrument in the chain to play different notes and sequences by setting them up to respond to and ignore messages on particular MIDI channels that you transmit from your MIDI keyboard. Setting things up this way allows you to have independent control of several different instruments at once by simply playing your MIDI keyboard, giving you a “one man band” effect.

MIDI technology is in the process of revolutionizing the process of composing and recording music. It’s a democratic revolution too, because it allows anyone with average intelligence and a few hundred dollars to compose and record their own music, And with 16 MIDI channels, this music can get quite complex – there’s a lot more to MIDI than the “one-man band effect” of being able to play a bunch of instruments at once with independent control over each one. Since each action taken by the musician, from sounding a note to increasing the volume to adjusting the pitch, is sent through digital MIDI signals, a computer can be the last object in the chain of instruments and these digital commands can be recorded in a compact file. Since the digital MIDI signals are sent over 16 different channels, every single act of the musician on every single instrument in the chain can be recorded in a digital computer file, and the commands can easily be teased apart because MIDI messages are digital and they the same command is numbered slightly differently depending on which channel it’s being sent from.

Because of this, you can record your masterpiece on your computer, then pull it apart and manipulate it and recombine it to create another song or just improve your original masterpiece. You can play it back anytime you like from your computer. If it’s romantic enough, hey, e-mail it your girlfriend.