Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Midi keyboards

This is topic Midi keyboards in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Andrew McCrea (Member # 674) on 05-07-2007, 10:31 AM:

I thought since this was generally a technical place, someone could help me understand some stuff about MIDI keyboards.

I have a cheap Radio Shack midi keyboard with a MIDI out port. I have an E-Mu midi to usb connector to hook up the keyboard to the computer.

My band would like to start using keyboard/synth in our recording, but we don't really know how to get using the MIDI on the computer, although we do have people who can play it.

I understand that MIDI is simply pulses, not actual sound, and that these pulses can be sent into software. This software can then create pulses from the sound and it can be manipulated to sound like anything...

What kind of software am I looking for on the net (since there's MIDI converters, sequencers, editors)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Damien Taylor (Member # 4255) on 05-07-2007, 11:18 AM:

Midi can behave in much a similar way as other peripherals such as keyboards. It has the awesome ability to do this things but in the familiar piano key layout. In theory you could bind the keys to do pretty much anything given a little programming.

Since you look like you've got everything you need you need hardware wise its just what instrument you want to play. Native instruments offer great programs for emulating famous machines of old, The Hammond B-3 and the Prophet 5 amongst others with amazing authenticity(for a price) [Razz]

Although i've never been smart enough to use it properly, I know people who swear by the FREE Buzz Machines Modular Synthesizer.

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 05-08-2007, 04:36 PM:

quote: Andrew McCrea
I understand that MIDI is simply pulses, not actual sound, and that these pulses can be sent into software. This software can then create pulses from the sound and it can be manipulated to sound like anything...

What comes out of a MIDI port is is data which translates to one or more of the following parameters:

-Which key(s) you pressed
-How hard you pressed said key(s) (velocity)
-How hard you are pressing down after the initial key press(es) (aftertouch)
-What program (patch) is beinig played or being changed to (program change)
-What is the position of the pitch and/or modulation wheels, if applicable (wheel)
-What control and/or program data specific to a particular piece of MIDI hardware is being transmitted (System Exclusive/Sysex)
-MIDI Clock data (usually from a sequencer or drum machine)

MIDI data cannot be manipulated to make sounds, it is only the data you see above. You need a synth or sampler of some sort (hardware or software) to make sound.

I would recommend one of the Cakewalk packages for a beginner to MIDI sequencing (almost all of the sequencers now can also do realtime audio recordig as well).

-Aaron