Monday, September 16, 2013

MIDI Communication and Control

MIDI is a means of communication between musical instruments, computers, musical and show performance software, sequencers, and recording devices and allows one devise to control a number of others. MIDI messages can be sent through a MIDI link which can carry sixteen independent channels of information. A devise can listen to only one channel or it could listen to all channels. This capability greatly expands the range of composers, musicians and other artists ability to create, perform, and manipulate sounds and effects with a high degree of control and customization. For instance, MIDI sequencers allow composers to audition and edit their work much more quickly and efficiently than did older solutions, such as recording to multitrack tape. They improve the efficiency of composers who lack strong pianistic abilities, and allow untrained individuals the opportunity to create polished arrangements. Because MIDI is a set of commands that create sound, MIDI sequences can be manipulated in ways that prerecorded audio cannot.
MIDI can control the parameters of a synthesizer’s filters and envelops. When one of the controller numbers is assigned to a parameter the device will respond to any of the MIDI messages it receives. The tactile adjustment features of a MIDI keyboard controller( the knob, switches, and pedals) could all be used to send these messages.
As we have already learned, compositions can be turned into sequenced MIDI recordings and saved as a MIDI file that can be adjusted via computer software. Changing instrumentation, adding effects and filters, and changing tempo to a piece of music is possible.

 I know this may be premature but here are a couple of examples of  MIDI file embellishment I played with over the weekend. The first is a snippet of So What by Miles Davis

 The second is the full piece( I’m sorry), Adagio by Samuel Barber. If you have seen the movie Platoon you have heard it.

No comments: