midi manual eng - the Roland E
Contents
1. 2 F ent channels you simply need Channel 3 Broadcasting to select the channel you wish dation 3 ee to watch i MIDI channels behave the same way A MIDI master instrument is just like a TV broadcasting station A MIDI slave instrument is like your TV receiver although rather than lect the channel you want to watch transmitting through the air MIDI is transmitted via cables EN 13 Roland What s MIDI The MIDI master instrument can then decide which channel to transmit rather like choos ing which TV station it wants to be On the other hand the slave instrument can behave like the TV set and choose which M IDI channel it wants to hear Even if information is received on all 16 MIDI channels the slave will only hear the chosen channel just like the TV set For example if the instruments are set up asin the picture below Master Keyboard MIDI OUT IN MIDI THRU MIDIIN Synthesizer 1 Synthesizer 2 MIDI Channel 1 only receives MIDI Channel 2 only receives messages on MIDI channel 1 messages on MIDI channel 2 Synth 1 only receives the information from channel 1 through the M IDI cable Synth 2 only receives channel 2 So that if the master keyboard is sending on MIDI channel 1 only synth 1 will respond Similarly if the master transmits on M IDI channel 2 only synth 2 will respond Even though synth 1 is obviously receiving the information it cannot respond because it is2. 25 Roland What s MIDI Local Control Some synths and equipment have a parameter related to M IDI called Local Control When this control is on LOCAL ON the keyboard of the instrument can play its own sounds if LOCAL is OFF the instrument can only send MIDI information out without playing its own sounds The basic structure of synths and electronic pianos is shown MIDLOUT MIDLIN in the picture The information generated by the keyboard usually goes to the sound generating part to play a sound This connection is broken if the LOCAL switch is OFF T However even if LOCAL is OFF the MIDI OUT connection LSP will still operate MIDI OUT LOCAL OFF is convenient when using sequencers which are capable of sending the MIDI IN information to the ioin MIDI OUT information This function is called SOFT THRU see the picture below In this case when you Information received record using LOCAL OFF and SOFT THRU ison you rey via MIDI IN can listen to the performance of the sequencer as well as your performance on the keyboard Information recorded by the sequencer gt 26
3. bend etc These Channel M essages are fur ther divided into 2 categories Voice M essages and M ode M essages a Voice Messages Note Information Note Information is the most basic it simply says which key was pressed when it was pressed and when it was released Program Changes A Program Change is used to cause the slave to change its sound Synths electronic pianos and sampling machines have memories full of many sounds With these Program Changes the musician can choose which sound to use It is also possible to switch the memories of MIDI effects devices Control Changes A Control Change can add subtle nuance to a performance things like modulation i e vibrato and tremolo hold damper pedal soft pedal and Portamento These messages are not used in all MIDI instruments An electronic piano will send and receive damper pedal information but it certainly does not require Portamento So even if the master instrument has Portamento the piano will not respond to that information To find out which controllers a specific instrument will respond to refer to the M IDI Imple mentation Chart usually found on the last page of the Owner s M anual gt 17 Roland What s MIDI After Touch Synths and samplers can control vibrato brilliance volume etc by simply pressing the key harder after initially playing it This effect is called After Touch and can be used to transmit th
4. exclusive data received with the wrong ID Num amp ber will beignored by that manufacturers machines 18 Roland What s MIDI With Exclusive M essages it is possible to exchange an incredible number of different kind of information between musical M IDI devices Generally you can find information about SysEx messages of your instrument in the M IDI Implementation M anual ROA Roland What s MIDI 4 Actual MIDI Implementation And Notes MIDI Implementation Chart The Effective Way to Check MIDI Communication Although M IDI madeit possible for a wide variety of instruments to communicate this does not mean that all instruments will understand the entire M IDI language For example connecting aM IDI cable from a synth to aM IDI effect may not make the effect behave the way you want Or using a synth with pitch bend connected to an electronic piano will not force the piano to change its pitch Simply con necting aM IDI cable is not enough For the iafonaatioh to be a Shayma meow MON municated between thetwo instruments they must both understand that particu B l lar piece of information TEENA eann es Asthe picture shows when using asynth as a master to play an electronic piano sound they can only communicatein areaA The synth has Portamento and pitch bend Synthesizer MASTER Digital Piano SLAVE This is what they functions and sends the relevant information both understa
5. making process Firstly we shall discuss playing 2 instruments in unison Suppose you connected the M IDI OUT of a digital piano to the MIDI IN of a synth If the synth is set to play a string sound playing the piano will causethe synth to play exactly the same part on a string sound The result is a very BIG sound simulating the pianist being doubled by an orchestra ROA gt Roland What s MIDI Combinations of Different Kinds of Instruments As was mentioned earlier it is possible for different kinds of instruments to converse through M IDI Naturally we expect keyboards to talk to each other but what would a piano say to a drum machine It is hard to imagine just what the result might be Think at what could happen if you connect a piano to adrum machine the piano as the master the drum machine as the slave You may choose the sounds assign them so that by playing the key C on the piano a bass drum sound is heard Then perhaps a D would play the snare and a G a Tom etc Then rather than using drum sticks you can play the drums by pressing the appropriate keys on the key board What happens if the drum machine is the master and the piano is the slave This time if the drum machine is playing a pre pro grammed rhythm the piano will play the same part H owever whenever the drum machine plays a bass drum the piano will play a C etc Just the reverse of the previo
6. possible to switch a variety of effects on or off delay or Reverb for example A M IDI sequencer can also be syn chronized with a multi track tape recorder MTR expanding thenumber of available tracks or with a Light System The concept is extremely versatile and the future is still wide open For further information about M IDI future you can visit the Internet site of the MIDI M an ufacturers Association For that purpose if you have Internet connection click on the picture below MIDI Manutacturers Association gt 12 Roland What s MIDI 3 Information Transmitted Via MIDI TO 3 1 MIDI Channels and Modes D Channels G MIDI isableto transmit a variety of information from a master instrument to a slave instru ment Either one part or multiple parts can be transmitted via a sequencer system For this purpose MIDI includes 16 channels All the different types of M IDI conversation can be sent via these 16 channels separately So with one M IDI cable 16 parts can be played at the same time The concept of M IDI channels is similar to that of TV broadcasting in a sense M any TV sta tions are transmitting their respective programs at the same time This means Channel 1 that your TV antenna must be Broadcasting Iz on Station 1 receiving all these channels at Channel 2 once However since all the sta f Broadcasting tions aretransmitting on differ Station
7. switched to a different channel In other words for this system to work correctly YOU MUST CAREFULLY SELECT MIDI CHANNELS With this concept of M IDI channels it is possible to play 16 different parts on 16 instru ments via a sequencer and all originally down one MIDI cable gt 14 Roland What s MIDI Modes As we mentioned before it is necessary to use the same M IDI channel if a master and a slave areto play in unison but there is another way to make the slave receive the information This modeis called OMNI ON and it forces the slave to respond to all 16 MIDI channels at once In a simple set up of one master and one slave this becomes very useful because the slave doesn t care which channel the master is using it will hear them all H owever when using a sequencer playing on a variety of different channels it is impossible to separate the information So then the slave must bein the OMNI OFF mode so that it will only receive information on the chosen channel MIDI OUT MIDI IN Master Keyboard Synthesizer OMNI ON Receives MIDI information on any MIDI channel There are also POLY and MONO modesin MIDI which decide whether the information is to be sent as monophonic information one note or polyphonic information more than one note Keyboard instruments such as pianos and synths usually use the POLY mode MONO modeis mainly used for MIDI guitar controllers In
8. this mode the information belonging to each guitar string is sent on separate channels dividing the sound source into 6 monophonic synths Then a BASIC MIDI channel is set and the next 5 channels are used for the other strings amp gt 15 Roland What s MIDI To choose whether to use POLY MONO OMNI etc MIDI includes a M ODE selector with 4 possibilities MODES 1 4 MODE 1 OMNI ON POLY Receives information on all channels and plays all notes MODE 2 OMNI ON MONO Receives information on all channels but will only play one note at atime MODE 3 OMNI OFF POLY Receives only on the chosen MIDI channel and plays all notes U seful with sequencers QD MODE 4 OMNI OFF MONO Receives on specific M IDI channel s will only play one 4 E note per channel U seful with guitar controllers Roland What s MIDI 3 2 Main Contents of MIDI Information MIDI contains many kinds of information that it can use to transmit performance details from the master to the slave Such things as when each note was played or released note on and note off damper pedal on and off etc Also the information is divided into channel messages and system messages Channel Messages These messages are sent via the individual MIDI channels to specific instruments in the sys tem and therefore only affect those instruments receiving that channel Channel M essages include note on off damper pedal on off pitch
9. to music very well before M IDI Certainly it was hard to understand any conversation between computers and musical instruments Thanks to MIDI it is now possible to build small boxes that can interpre the language of computers into MIDI and vice versa These boxes are called interfaces Today most of the sound cards have a built in MIDI interface So sometimes you won t see any Box in fact in this case the connection can be made directly between the MIDI device and the PC through aM IDI Joystick cable MIDIJ oystick cable All computers use what we now call software that is a i ee information on computer disk that tells the computer how i Qu to behave A software may teach the computer how to be a sequencer while another could be sound edit soft ware teaching the computer how to modify the sounds of a synthesizer The picture shows an example of a basic computer music system with sequencer software T he advantages of such system are the huge computer memory available in order to store many songs or long songs and the size of the computer display making it easy to visually check all the data for a perfor amp mance 11 MIDI OUT Roland What s MIDI MIDI Systems Expanding Into Various Fields We have already discussed a variety of M IDI systems but there are still many more possibili ties For example when changing a sound in a M IDI system it is also
10. use of MIDI THRU in expanding a MIDI system E gt Roland What s MIDI One Way MIDI Conversation MIDI information is sent from MIDI OUT to MIDI IN or from MIDI THRU to MIDI IN For example a M IDI keyboard controller which has no sound of its own or a MIDI Sound module which has no keyboard and so on have fixed roles They are either the master or the slave In this situation the speaker is called the master and the listener isthe slave The picture below shows the information from an electronic piano being sent to a synthesizer In this case the piano is the master and the synth is the slave MIDI OUT MIDIIN Digital Piano Synthesizer MASTER SLAVE Play on this instrument However in the following picture the information is being sent from the synth to the piano and so their roles are reversed The synth is now the master while the piano is the slave Con sequently the connections are very important MIDI IN MIDI OUT Digital Piano Synthesizer SLAVE MASTER Play on this instrument Furthermore the master slave relationship is not always one to one asin the previous 2 dia grams The number of slaves can be increased 1 2 or 1 3 etc gt 7 Roland What s MIDI 2 The Benefits Of MIDI Two Instruments in Unison This section will cover the uses of M IDI in performance expression and other facets of the music
11. H Altere Mode 3 the power is turned off ie Mesam Meas Vek Tue Voice 0 127 Mode 3 4 Mat The next column says Changed This ead ir 2 ter o 0 127 4 To Key s shows how many MIDI channedscanbe So T jo end o g set usually 1 16 z s r 0 3210 3 o ale 2 Je 7 38 FIS S Jo Bank g adr 10 9 4 o 4 Modulation Controy jo 4 o 1 Portamento 7 Change 16 0 4 o 1 Data Entry 1719 o t Volum 64 0 pa o 1 Panpot 65 6 4 fo 1 Express 66 0 1 jg f Source 4 gt a 8 ye T i j e 1 gemen 2 1 1 tenuto i Ni Progray m Change Ti eg System Ey Roland What s MIDI Mode There are 3 columns for M ode Default M essage and Altered D efault shows the mode the instrument is in when the power is turned on The M essage column shows if it is possible for theinstrument to receive M ode messages or after having received a mode message if it s pos sibleto still change modes The Altered column is only used is only used for instruments that can receive messages which will switch the instrument to a special mode the special mode being explained in this column Note Number This column shows the note range over which the instrument can receive or transmit It can usually only transmit as many note numbers as it has keys while it may receive over a much wider range Some instruments may receive very high or low notes but play a note in a dif ferent octave as a result This too is mentioned in this column Velocity There are Not
12. Roland Roland What s MIDI 1 What Is MIDI Conversation Between Musical Instruments Musical instruments finally started conversing in the 80 s a revolution in the world of elec tronic music Now oneinstrument can say to another play middle C with about 60 strength then play E4 alittle louder The second instrument listens to this dialogue and plays the notes in turn aslong as it can understand the language used The language that is now shared by all electronic musical instruments is called M IDI and is featured in this document Even though the instruments can now converse they still have no will of their own In fact the only link in the chain with its own will is you the musician Then the instruments interpret your performance by translating it into MIDI MIDI is considered to be the language which is used to send perfor mance information from one instrument to another For your reference MIDI stands for M usical Instrument Digital Interface E gt Roland What s MIDI Applications of MIDI MIDI is widely known as a language between musical instruments MIDI has expanded in such a short period of time because it can be applied to many different situa tions Today it is also very common to use MIDI to connect a M IDI device such as a Keyboard Controller to the Computer MIDI isauniversal term Although there are many di
13. e commu nicated ZA 24 Roland What s MIDI 5 Avoiding MIDI Problems MIDI enables you to add expression to your music in many different ways Things like after touch synchronization and Pitch Bend can substantially enhance the performance H ow ever this requires an exchange of large amounts of data which also increases the possibility of error Unexpected problems can be caused by faulty connections lack of knowledge and many other factors In this section some of the common problems are discussed and their solutions explained MIDI Cable Connections Obviously if the cables are connected incorrectly the performance information cannot be successfully communicated M ake sure they are connected from the MIDI OUT of the mas ter to the MIDI IN of the slaves or MIDI THRU to MIDI IN MIDI and Drum Machines Oo Drum machines can be used in synchronization with sequencers or as a sound source for a MIDI keyboard etc When a synth is the slave to change the sound you need to send a Pro gram Change message H owever to change the sound of adrum machine you need only to play a different note C for bass drum D for snare etc Consequently in a M IDI system using a sequencer it would be better to set the MIDI chan nel of the drum machine to a channel that is not being used so that it does not receive unex pected note on data Please note that the standard MIDI channel for drumsis 10 gt
14. e instrument will under stand MIDI Song Position Pointer where the instrument can decide from which bar to start playing and MIDI Song Selection to decide which song to play etc System Real Time ee Real Time information refers to the ability of the machine to synchronize via MIDI If it understands Clock information then it can play in time with other instruments If it understands Commana information it will also know when to start and stop Aux Messages oo This column is used to display whether the instrument is capable of receiving information E that will help itto avoid any MIDI problems gt 23 Roland What s MIDI This area is used for exceptions to the rules For example if the functions of an instrument change according to specific parameter settings they will be indicated here Asa result when you connect two or more instruments via M IDI cables you merely need to check the relevant columns of their respective Implementation Charts to see if the communi cation you require is possible See the picture for an easy way to MIDI Implementation Chart compare charts All MIDI Imple of the SLAVE instrument mentation Charts have a stan MIDI Implementation Chart dard format making it easy to of the MASTER instrument arrange the charts as shown and compare the transmit column of the master to the receive column of the slave For instance if either column has a X for Pitch Bend then it will not b
15. e same effects via M ID1 Of course the slave instrument must then decide how to use the Aftertouch information it receives Pitch Bend If the master has a Pitch Bender the information may be sent via M IDI Once again the slave will decide if it wants Pitch Bend and even how much it wants b Mode Messages As mentioned earlier MIDI has 4M ODES and MODE messages are used to switch the MODE of a slave Some synths or electronic pianos arein MODE 1 OMNI ON POLY whenever they are switched on so you will need to switch them to MODE 3 OMNI OFF POLY for use with a sequencer Because of this some sequencers will automatically send a mode message to turn the slaves to M ODE 3 Turning the slaves power on first followed by the power of the master will often achieve the same result System Messages System M essages can be sent no matter how the M IDI channels of the slave or the master are set since they are used to control the whole M IDI system that is every instrument con nected by the MIDI cables For example they can be used to synchronize a sequencer and a drum machine so that they play exactly in time together or to start and stop the performance or simply to avoid MIDI system problems Also there are messages called System Exclusive M essages which are messages that are exclusive to a particular manufacturer So that each manufacturer has an ID Number which their instruments will recognize Any system
16. eOn and Note Off entries for Velocity This row shows whether the instrument can transmit or receive these two velocity types It does not represent the actual note on off capability just the speed of the respective note on or off If thereis an X in either column it does not mean that the instrument cannot recognize a note on or off merely that it does not recognize how fast it was pressed or released After Touch This shows if the instrument can receive transmit Aftertouch information The columns refer to channel Aftertouch Ch s one value per MIDI channel and polyphonic Aftertouch Key s a separate Aftertouch value for each note On most instruments Aftertouch refers to channel Aftertouch gt 22 Roland What s MIDI Pitch Bend Whether or not the instrument can receive transmit Pitch Bend information Control Change This column shows whether or not the instrument can transmit receive control change mes sages like modulation damper pedal Hold Portamento etc These controls are particu larly important when connecting two different synths or a synth and a piano Program Change Whether or not the instrument can transmit receive program change information and what numbers it uses System Exclusive This column indicates what kind of data can be transmitted received via System Exclusive messages System Common a This section is for sequencer based MIDI systems It indicates if th
17. fferent languages in the world such as English French and so on MIDI has only one language and can therefore provide communication between Japanese and American instruments or German and Italian instruments MIDI can even be used to talk to instruments from different manufacturers Furthermore MIDI can be applied to many kinds of instruments In this way it is possible for an elec tronic piano to talk to asynthesizer adrum machine or a Computer Consequently MIDI has an enormous potential for growth and development as you shall seein this document gt Roland What s MIDI What Makes A MIDI Conversation Possible Just how is MIDI used to provide this conversation To explain this look at the back of your instrument There are several connectors includingaMIDI IN a MIDI OUT and often aMIDI THRU These arethe ears and mouth of the M IDI conversation and are essential for any MIDI communication The actual M IDI conversation travels from the MIDI OUT of oneinstrument to the M IDI IN of another by connecting only one M IDI cable between these two sockets The cable used has five pins matching perfectly the five holes in each of the sockets It is also frequently used the M I DI Joystick Cable that allows to connect a M IDI deviceto the PC E gt Roland What s MIDI So why do we need three sockets MIDI IN MIDI OUT and MIDI THRU TO MIDI IN is for listening to a MIDI conve
18. nd viaMIDI OUT but the piano does not have these functions Consequently the piano can neither receive nor perform either of these effects On the other hand the piano has a soft pedal a control the synth cannot understand gt 20 So in a multi instrument MIDI system you will need to check what information each instrument can send and receive To quickly check this information each instrument has a User s M anual that will includea MIDI Implementation Chart showing the kinds of infor mation that can be sent and received How To Read MIDI Implementation Charts On the left hand side of the chart various types of MIDI information names are listed The transmit receive column shows the capability of the instrument to transmit or receive that data using a O for yes and a x for no If its capability depends on other factors the addi tional information will also be shown Basic Channel There are two columns for Basic Channel Default and Changed Default shows which chan nel is set when you first turn on the power Most instruments can renember a specific MIDI channdl In this case the channel Fart you selected last time you used the instru Se Fy ment will be recalled in which case the CREAT VE ki odel EM 20 a YBOARD Arranger Da te September ook Version 4 99 Basic Channel etau hanged 1 16 1 16 1 16 Of OFF 4 a chart will say memory works even after me peru
19. rsation that is itis the entrance for MIDI information MIDI OUT is for speaking to send the conversation from an instrument and is there fore the exit point for MIDI information See the illustration for asimpleMIDI OUT to G MIDI IN connection MIDI THRU Retransmits a copy of the M IDI messages received via M IDI IN j p E T ee gt Roland What s MIDI As you can see MIDI IN and MIDI OUT are relatively easy to understand and use how MIDI instrument 1 iad ever MIDI THRU is comparatively more diffi MIDI out cult MIDI THRU issimilar to MIDI OUT it does speak to the next instrument however it doesn t provide its own conversation it MIDI IN lt merely repeats anything that is heard by the ue eiam en Pie MIDI IN For example the picture shows the flow of information through a possible set up of three keyboards ee MIDI instrument 3 In this set up MIDI information is fed out of the MIDI OUT of keyboard number 1 and into the IN of keyboard number 2 It is also passed on to the IN of keyboard number 3 via the THRU of keyboard number 2 This way the information from keyboard number 1 can control both keyboards 2 and 3 Such a combination of more than 2 instruments is referred to as a MIDI system Of course without the M IDI THRU this set up could not become a M IDI system and therefore it is easy to understand the
20. us situation Note A drum machine has limited note capability and can usually only remember a few songs so it would be more practical to use a Sequencer or a Computer for this type of automatic performance as we shall discuss later amp This combination of a piano and a drum machine is only one example Using MIDI perfor mance information it is possible for many types of instruments to converse viaM IDI gt 9 Roland What s MIDI A Sequencer System One of the most powerful uses of the M IDI language isto include a sequencer Performingin unison as we mentioned earlier 47 can provide some excellent sound possibilities but still limits the performance to that of the master keyboard A sequencer on the other hand is capable of renembering several instrumental parts mak ingit possible to usea variety of sound sources It then becomes a simple matter to construct an entire arrangement or orchestration For example a sequencer as the master can control a synth for melody a piano for chords another synth for bass and adrum machine all at the same time The data for this 4 part performance being stored in the sequencer Then as the data is sent to all 4 instruments the automatic performance begins As you can understand a sequencer can be seen as multi track recorder that enables you to record your own songs gt 10 Roland What s MIDI Computer Music System Computers did not seem to relate
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