Newbie

[taylormade]

I am somewhat of a newbie when it comes to recording and everyone I talk to talks about MIDI. What is MIDI and when would I need to use it and why?

I have had a Roland vs880 for about six years now and it still confuses me. Is there a more extensive manual on how to use this other than the one that came with it?

Thanks.

 

[bennychico11]

MIDI is a machine language. It stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It's pretty much just a bunch of 1s and 0s thrown together much like your computer does. It's used in conjuction with music to trigger things. A simple example is when you press a key down on a keyboard it is sending a 1 signal to another device telling it to turn ON that note. When you release it sends a 0 telling it to turn off. So what you're doing with MIDI is triggering sounds to play (either sampled ones someone has recorded earlier or a synthesized sound). People like to use MIDI in music because you are able to control every aspect of the sound and be able to do some really cool things that you wouldn't be able to do with regular instruments. Other musicians really like how you can play into a computer program and record note for note what you did. Then later you can go back in and alter those notes if you messed up to make a perfect performance and do many other things to it. Hope this helps. Look for some books at a music store or online that can help tell you everything behind MIDI. There's so much to go into that I can't possibly do right now.