MIDI For Dummies

[Old No7]

I sure hope this doesn't turn into one of those "Well, if you were a real musician, you'd roll up your sleeves and use your ears to learn how to do it, just like how we learned back in the 60's  & 70's -- and not just ask here..."

 

But since it's about MIDI (1.0 released in 1983) -- maybe not...

 

Anyway, I'm an old-school keyboardist who has 3 boards, all with MIDI capabilities that sits unused so far.  I'm pretty sure there's actually a book by the above title, but I'm also pretty sure that's not the best place for me to start.  And there may be some informative videos over on youtube to help too.

 

That said, can anyone suggest a good introductory book or guide to start my journey into the "How To" of MIDI?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Old No7

[cassdad]

MIDI for Dummies is a great start.  MIDI is actually very straight-forward.  It is very flexible, and can be used very simply (just plug it in and it works), or get quite complex (using it to make various adjustments and selections electronically).  For me, learning how to use it was time well spent, and has served me well through the years.  It really can make musical life much easier.

[AROIOS]

https://theproaudiofiles.com/midi-basics/

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/midi-basics-part-1

If you had experience with computer programming, it helps to start by asking yourself: "How would I represent all value changes on a synth (pitch, velocity, filter cutoff, attack time, LFO speed... etc) with 7 bits of data (128 levels)?" and "what if I want finer levels of control than that?"

[stoken6]

MIDI isn't difficult to learn - don't be put off. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[JamPro]

I'm going to add my voice to those encouraging the study of MIDI.  It is time well-spent, and will greatly increase your knowledge of your electronic musical gear and what you can do with that gear in live, studio, and solo playing environments.

 

As keyboardist, we are unique in the musical world in that deep MIDI functionality exists in almost all our instruments, and we are asked to participate in musical activities where MIDI functionality is a huge performative and creative advantage.  Most other musicians do not have MIDI-enabled equipment, and those that do (drummers, say) mostly ignore it.  So adding MIDI to your music skills will give you a massive advantage over other music-makers.

[Delaware Dave]

There use to be a great tutorial on the tweakheadz site but i dont seem to see it now.  Really laid our the basics and a quick learn.

 

[Docbop]

As we say back in my developer support days  RTFM.     My favorite was when I was doing C++ support before it was standardized in the early days and we'd tell people to read The ARM  (The Annotated Reference Manual).   They buy this hardcover book and want to cry, it was kind of like reading the Unix Man pages which are the dryest reading you'll ever do.   I would tell people get a big glass of water and read the Man page for <fill in favorite Unix command>.  Below is the MIDI home and all its available of doc's.   Read all that and then you'll wish you never asked about MIDI and just assumed it works. 

 

https://www.midi.org/specifications

[Stokely]

I used to teach midi labs back in college, and every term there were students that just didn't get it, until (almost always) it would click.  I had various analogies and techniques for helping students along.   One big thing a lot of them would do is confuse midi and audio.   You have a leg way up on most of the students I ever taught because you play keyboards and are used to operating them

One analogy I would try is the player piano.  Simplistically speaking, midi and messages sent via midi are the roll--they don't make any sound or transfer audio, they provide a way to send commands to the receiving unit.  "Play this note, at this velocity"; or "change your patch to this number" and so on.  There are a lot of various midi messages and there are a few types.

As with audio, midi has a signal flow.  There are outputs that go to inputs (transmit and receive).  The receiving unit is not able to influence the transmitter, it only works one way.  You'd need another flow connected from Out to In, or these days use usb with a hub to do something like that.



The other basic part involves midi channels.   Most of the common midi messages are channel-specific, meaning they are sent on a specific channel.  The receiving unit must be set up to receive on the same channel.   The analogy here can be a tv station transmitting programming on channel 6--unless you tune your tv (yep, old analogy) to channel 6, you won't be receiving that programming.    There is an oddball called "Omni mode" which breaks the analogy though    Omni means the receiving unit will respond to ANY incoming midi regardless of channel.  This is not useful in a scenario where you have multiple units and you intend to send different messages to each at the same time, but it can be handy in a simpler situation.

It can get pretty involved once you get to system exclusive (if you ever need to), and sending patch changes can get a bit hairy with the bank messages needed for higher patch numbers--back in the day, this wasn't really needed much as most units didn't have that many patches!   Gear can also be "multitimbral", which for midi means it can receive on more than one midi channel at once.  I wouldn't go there until you get the basics working, if you happen to have gear that can do it.

 

It's important to know that sometimes midi involves "best intentions"   You can send a command, and it might be received, but it's up to the receiving unit to make it happen.  It would be unusual for one keyboard to receive a note on and convert that to a volume message, but it could conceivably be done.   The most common mismatch happens with the continuous controllers and their mappings, especially ones that aren't standardized.  cc#7 is almost always volume, or was last I checked, but again it's up to the receiver to change volume when it receives the command to do so.

I'd start basic and start trying things out as you learn them, but that's just how I learn.  Ymmv....
 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Assuming you are starting totally from scratch, here's the first, most important lesson I had to learn to start understanding how to make this stuff work:

 

MIDI Out - from the device sending a message to another device -- "play this note," "switch to this patch," "open the filter."

MIDI In - for the device that is *receiving* a MIDI signal and reacting to it -- a patch change, a parameter adjustment, audio output.

 

Some of you might laugh, but when I started hooking up my bass pedals to control a digital organ or synth, it took me awhile to get a grip on how to connect the cable between the two! "well if the sound is coming OUT of the synth, then I need to put the MIDI into the ... no wait, that's not right ..."  

[timwat]

Here's a PDF from Yamaha that provides basics, and includes helpful diagrams to help visually explain things.

[Stokely]

46 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Assuming you are starting totally from scratch, here's the first, most important lesson I had to learn to start understanding how to make this stuff work:

 

MIDI Out - from the device sending a message to another device -- "play this note," "switch to this patch," "open the filter."

MIDI In - for the device that is *receiving* a MIDI signal and reacting to it -- a patch change, a parameter adjustment, audio output.

 

Some of you might laugh, but when I started hooking up my bass pedals to control a digital organ or synth, it took me awhile to get a grip on how to connect the cable between the two! "well if the sound is coming OUT of the synth, then I need to put the MIDI into the ... no wait, that's not right ..."  

Nope, not laughing at all.  As I mentioned, students would have one of two basic issues--the audio vs midi one, or the one you are describing   

You can usually tell just by wording with someone who hasn't gotten it yet..."I'm trying to get this keyboard to play through this other one" and so on.

And I fully realize there are some people who *hate* analogies and find them annoying    I learn best with them.  My dad tried to teach me basic electrical engineering and I remember I didn't get any of it until (iirc) he made a flowing water analogy for resistance, voltage and current and the like.   Some people (like me) need to get a weird kind of holistic "what that thing IS" understanding that goes beyond the rote definitions is how I think of that!   Same for signal flow in audio when I was learning that.
 

[JimboKeys]

My go-to resource for 30 some-odd years, still useful:

 

MIDI Technical Fanatic's Brainwashing Center

[David Emm]

1 hour ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Assuming you are starting totally from scratch, here's the first, most important lesson I had to learn to start understanding how to make this stuff work:

MIDI Out - from the device sending a message to another device -- "play this note," "switch to this patch," "open the filter."

MIDI In - for the device that is *receiving* a MIDI signal and reacting to it -- a patch change, a parameter adjustment, audio output.

 

THIS, first. Send the Out to an In, both on Channel 1; start playing. Try similar sounds on both instruments, then very different ones. As you turn knobs, anything you know about mixing will come into play. The principles are mostly the same, as with filters doing serious EQ work. You have 3 synths, so you already know about musical FEEL. You'll be surprised at how quickly the basics will come to you. Breaking down sys-ex messaging or learning how to selectively route pedals/wheels/joysticks to parameters such as effect depth will come along in due course.

 

One of my biggest early successes was simply changing the MIDI channel on a Korg DW8000 to "2" when I didn't want to trigger its outboard Prophet. A simple action, but it doubled the strength of having 2 synths. Also, mishandled audio can offend your pets or blow things up, but mishandled MIDI just sits there like a Hypno-Toad, saying "Nope, that ain't it." You're on safe ground, up to the limits of your GAS.