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Notice in the above diagram that there is no audio connection to the MIDI control
keyboard, there's only a MIDI connection to the MPC. In this situation, the only
sounds will come from the MPC audio outputs (remember to load some samples in
first!)
When you play a key on your keyboard, the note you play has certain properties -
the note has a key represented by the 'MIDI note number', it has a volume (or
loudness) represented by 'velocity' and it plays for a certain length of time - this is
represented by it's length. There are other properties that can be represented but we
don't need to worry about those at this stage. All this information about the note you
are playing on the control keyboard is sent down the MIDI cable to your MPC and can
be stored or recorded into the MPC’s sequencer (as we shall see in later tutorials).
So, as long as the key you press on the keyboard corresponds to a sampled note in
your MPC, your note will be played and will come out of the MPC audio outs. We'll
look at how to assign sounds inside your MPC in a later tutorial.
Connecting up a keyboard with sounds (synthesiser)
If you have a keyboard with its own sounds, like a Korg Triton for example, you can
still control the MPC samples as you did in the last example. This is because any
synthesiser keyboard will transmit MIDI information. Just remember that the main
difference here will be that your keyboard in this situation can also emit sounds itself
- so make sure you turn off the synthesiser's volume control, otherwise you'll not
only hear the MPC internal samples, but also the synth's sounds as well!
The main thing I want to show here is that a synth not only has a MIDI out, it also
has a MIDI IN - hence it can not only send MIDI information, it can also RECEIVE it.
Equally, our MPC not only receives MIDI information, it can also TRANSMIT it. This
means that we can send a MIDI information signal to our synth from our MPC and
this signal can (amongst other things) tell our synth to play a particular note. How
do we send a MIDI signal from our MPC? Well, the PADs all have a unique MIDI note
number so when you press a PAD, it's the same as pressing a key on a MIDI
keyboard. For example, PAD A1 is by default MIDI Note 37 - if a MIDI synth is
connected to your MPC and you press PAD A1, it will play MIDI note 37 (C#) in our
synth.
This time, as well as connecting the keyboard MIDI out to the MPC MIDI in, you
connect the MPC MIDI out to the keyboard MIDI in. This is called the MIDI
'handshake'.
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