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8. MIDI
WHAT IS MIDI?
Here is a brief overview of MIDI, as related to the
microARRANGER. If interested, you may find more
information on thegeneraluse of MIDIinthevarious
specializedmagazinesandbooks.
In general
MIDI stands for Musical Instruments Digital Interface.
Thisinterfaceletsyouconnecttwomusicalinstruments,
oracomputerandvariousmusicalinstruments.
Physically, MIDI is composedofthree differentconnec‐
tor
s.TheMIDIINreceivesdatafromanotherdevic
e;the
MIDIOUTsendsdatatoanotherdevice;theMIDITHRU
sendstoanotherdeviceexactlywhatwasreceived onthe
MIDIIN(thisisusefultodaisy‐chainmoreinstruments).
Channels and messages
Basically, a MIDI cable transmits 16 channels of data.
Think to each MIDI channel as a TV channel: the
receiver must beseton the samechannelof thetrans‐
mitter. The sa
me happens with MIDI messages: when
you send a Note On message on
channel 1, it will be
received on channel 1 only. This allows for multitim‐
bricity:yo
ucanhavemorethanonesoundplayingon
thesameMI
DIinstrument.
Therearevariousmessages,buthere
arethemostcom‐
monlyused:
Note On – This message ins t
ructs an instrument to
play a
note on a specific channel. Notes have both a
name(C4standingforthecenterC)and anumber(60
being the equivalent for C4). A Note Off message is
often used to say the note has beenreleased. In some
case,aNoteOnwithva
lue“0”isusedinstead.
To
getherwiththeNoteOnmessage,aVeloci
tyvalueis
always sent. This value tells theinstrument how loud
thenotemustplay.
PitchBend(PB)–Youcangeneratethismessageacting
on
the joystick (X movement). The pitch is translated
upordown.
ProgramChange(PC)–WhenyouselectaProg
ram,a
ProgramChangemessageisgeneratedonthechannel.
Usethismessage,togetherwithControlChange00and
32, to remotely select microARRANGER data from a
sequenceroramasterkeyboard.
Control Change (CC) – This is a wide array of mes‐
sages, controlling most of the inst
rument parameters.
Someexam
ples:
•
CC00, or Bank Select MSB, and CC32, or Bank
SelectLSB.Thismessagepairisused,togetherwith
theProgramChangemessage,toselectaProgram.
• CC01, or Modulation. This is the equivalent of
pressingupthejoystick.Avibratoeffectisusually
triggeredon.
• CC07,orMasterVolume
.Usethiscontrollertoset
thechannel’s volume.
• CC10, or Pan.This onesetsthechannel’s position
onthestereofront.
• CC64,or
DamperPedal.Usethiscontrollertosim‐
ula
tetheDamperpedal.
Tempo
Tempo is a global MIDI message, that is not tied to a
particularchannel.EachSongincludesTempodata.
Lyrics
Lyricsarenon‐standardMIDI events,madeto display
text together with the music. microARRANGER can
readmanyoftheavailableLyricsformatonthemarket.
MIDIFILES
Midifiles,orStandardMIDIFiles(SMF),areapractical
way of exchanging songs between different instru‐
mentsandcomputers.microARRANGERhastheSMF
format as its defa
ult song format, so reading a song
fromacomputer,orsavingasongthatacomputersoft‐
warecanread,isnotaproblematal
l.
microARRANGERsequencersarecompatiblewi
ththe
SMF in format 0 (all data in one trac
k; it is the most
common format) and 1 (multitrack). It can read the
SMFinSongPlaymodeandmodify/savetheminSong
mode.ItcansaveaSonginSMF0formatintheBack‐
ingSequ
enceorSongmode.
When in Song Play mode, the microARRANGER can
also display SMF ly
rics in Solton, M‐Live (Midisoft),
Tune1000 and compatible (Edirol, GMX, HitBit, XF)
formats,andthechordabbreviationsofSMFinSolton,
M‐live(Midisoft),GMX,andXFformat.
THE GENERAL MIDI STANDARD
Some years ago, the musical instruments world felt a
needforsomefurtherstandardization.Then,theGen‐
eral MIDI Standard (GM
) was born. This extension of
the basic MIDI sets new rules for compatibility
betweeninstruments:
•Aminimumof16MIDIchannelswasrequired.
•Abasicsetof128Programs,correctlyorde
red,was
mandatory.
•TheDrumKithadastandardorder.
• Channel10hadtobedevotedtotheDrumKit.
A most recent extension is the GM2, that further
expands the Programs database. The microAR‐
RANGERissoundwise‐comp
atiblewiththeGM2stan‐
dard
.
THE GLOBAL CHANNEL
Any channels with the Global option assigned (see
“Page6‐MIDIINChannels”onpage127)cansimulate
themicroARRANGERinteg
ratedkeyboard. When the
microARRANGERis connectedtoamasterkeyboard,
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