paging dr stawl... dr stawl to the ER .. MIDI emergency

Eddie N

Eddie N

10 Inch Member
hehe...i knew you'd come :D... i basically direct this question to you because you are the master of MIDI... but anyones input would be greatly appreciated...

i have a keyboard that is an input device... but..it also has midi jacks.. if the keyboard makes sounds of its own , what are the jacks for ? are they used to transfer the signal from the keyboard to your computer with out converting the signal to analog similar to spdif ? i just dont understand.. a friend of mine owns a 1700 dollar sampler/sequencer that makes an incredible amount of sounds , but yet has midi jacks.. if you were to hook up the midi jacks to the computer .. what purpose would it serve ? would the original sounds that the sampler makes be replicated in the computer ? it is my understanding that the quality of your soundcard has a direct effect on the realness and the quality of the midi sounds.. with that said , when using your midi jacks and soundcard to trigger sounds, are all the sounds that your keyboard/sampler make rendered useless ? that doesnt make sense to me... and the idea of converting the digital signal to analog and then back to digital when using the line in of your soundcard just to use the original sounds of your keyboard doesnt thrill me too much because of the added noise that comes with that... ( deep breath ) which makes me wonder... why dont keyboards have spdif outs to for people that want to keep the signal all in the digital domain ? pleaaasseee help me..

- eddie -

[This message has been edited by Eddie N (edited 08-07-1999).]
 
>because you are the master of MIDI...

I'd reserve judgement there until you've actually heard my MIDI creations.... :)

>i have a keyboard that is an input device... >but..it also has midi jacks.. if the >keyboard makes sounds of its own , what are >the jacks for ?

Same deal with my keyboard. It's a Kawai FS-750 and the sounds it makes on its own through those little built-in speakers is so putrid, I have to plug in a resistor to the headphones jack just to stop it.
I can still hear the salesman from Guitar Center telling me, as I handed over my plastic, "Man- you're gonna dig it." But since I can't play the keyboard, it has served its purpose well without any overkill.
It's a velocity sensitive 61-key MIDI controller. Period. Not a great one, but adequate. Yamaha, Casio and Fatar all make a better one. It was just the cheapest one at the time.
MIDI merely records commands to a synthesizer. On those fancier keyboards, the synthesizer is built in, and sometimes actually sounds good, so it makes sense to use the sound directly in a recording. Such keyboards usually have line out jack(s) as well as a headphone jack. But the MIDI outs give you the additional capability of triggering a different synthesizer directly or storing the MIDI as a file on a computer or other sequencer for playback on a different synthesizer. The MIDI ins give you the additional capability of triggering the built-in synth from an external MIDI source.

>a friend of mine owns a 1700 dollar >sampler/sequencer that makes an incredible >amount of sounds , but yet has midi jacks.. >if you were to hook up the midi jacks to the >computer .. what purpose would it serve ?

To trigger the sampled sounds from a file on the computer. You might even be able to load a "sequence" from the computer into the sampler/sequencer. The editing tools available on a computer are far superior to entering/editing sequences on one of those units. And conversely, if you were crazy enough to enter your sequences with the sampler/sequencer- you could save the product of all that hard labor as a file on a computer for later playback.

>would the original sounds that the sampler >makes be replicated in the computer?

If you fed the audio signal from the sampler back to the line-in on a good soundcard- then yes.
In other words, you're running two programs (generating a MIDI signal from a stored MIDI file, and digitally recording an analog signal) at the same time, or a program (like Cakewalk Pro Audio) that can do both tasks at the same time.

>it is my understanding that the quality of >your soundcard has a direct effect on the >realness and the quality of the midi >sounds..

This is the case when the synth being triggered is built into the soundcard. Soundblasters and all SB compatibles have this feature. GINA and her kind do not. But when digitally recording even the best of synthesizers, soundcard quality of course comes into play for a different reason.

>with that said , when using your midi jacks >and soundcard to trigger sounds, are all the >sounds that your keyboard/sampler make >rendered useless?

Not useless. It's still your choice whether to use additional MIDI triggered sounds alone or with the onboard sounds. Kind of like a player piano. You can use the roll or you can just play it. Or both.

>that doesnt make sense to me... and the idea >of converting the digital signal to analog >and then back to digital when using the >line in of your soundcard just to use the >original sounds of your
>keyboard doesnt thrill me too much because >of the added noise that comes with that...

There is only one analog to digital conversion of sound going on here. The conversion of a keyboard performance to MIDI data, while still technically an analog to digital conversion, only converts
commands to a synthesizer to a digital code. There is no noise associated with this conversion or the conversion back to performance commands. It's just like a robot watched you play the keyboard and learned how to do it exactly like you did. (I think DATA can do that, can't he?) When he plays the
piece there's no additional noise introduced.

>( deep breath ) which me wonder... why dont >keyboards have spdif outs to for people that >want to keep the signal all in the digital >domain ? pleaaasseee help me..

Great question. All you sound card engineers, take note. Why the hell isn't this a common feature???
My guess is that this would only add about a hundred bucks to the price of a high-end keyboard. That's chump change on a $2500 instrument.
 
Eddie, gotta tell ya that subject headline was THE BEST !
Nice to see the world aint lost all its humour.....yet !

Alan :)
 
friends....

i understand now... just use the line outs of the keyboard/sampler and record through the line in ... i just figured that as expensive as this equipment is...there would be a way to keep it all digital ... but.. if there wont be too much added noise.. then i guess its no big deal... thank you Dr.

alan , thanks for the compliment .. much appreciated... good thing that joke went better than my piracy joke..( https://homerecording.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000586.html ) no one seemed to like that one...hehe

- eddie -
 
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