By Fraser Crossingham

A GUIDE TO THE WORLD OF

MIDI standing for Musical Instrument Digital Interface is
almost a revolutionary piece of equipment when it comes to
recording. The first of its kind were music synthesizers,
created in 1950, and MIDI was born in 1983 as a
development from that but it has far exceeded the
expectations of what anybody around in that era would
imagine.
This booklet aims to provide you with enough information
on MIDI to enable you to work with it, along with giving
you my experience and thoughts on it, and stating why, to
many artists and musicians including myself, it is of vital
importance and essential when concerning the process of
perfecting and producing a project.

MIDI KEYBOARDS
On the next page is a diagram annotating the major parts that are normally
included on a MIDI keyboard/controller !
MUSICAL.INSTRUMENT.DIGITAL.INTERFACE
By Fraser Crossingham























To explain the annotations that do not clearly state the functions of the parts:
The data entry slider when assigned to a MIDI control value will allow you
to change the volume of that value at will; the button selectors enable you to
change the octave in which the instrument plays; the MIDI out socket is
where you would connect the keyboard with whatever instrument or other
piece of musical equipment you are using (e.g. A microphone); the 9V DC is
for an optional power adapter which is used when controlling hardware or
when the MIDI keyboard is not powered by a computer and the foot-pedal
sustain jack is where a pedal which allows you to control the vibration of the
keys or instrument played would be plugged in.
C1 D1 E1 F1 G1 A1 B1 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 A2 B2 C3
Pitch/Modulation Wheels
Data Entry Slider
USB 2
Connector
Foot-Pedal
Sustain Jack
MIDI Out
9V DC
Power Switch
Button
Selectors
Velocity Sensitive Keys
By Fraser Crossingham
Like any normal piano, when playing the keyboard you must ensure you
maintain the correct posture (sitting down, back straight, hands at keyboard
level and relaxed) so that you may prevent the risk of getting RSI (Repetitive
Strain Injury) this is a general term to describe serious injury to the
muscles, nerves and tendons of the body.

DAWS

DAWS standing for Digital Audio Workstations, are electronic tools
consisting of one to a numerous amount components
that are used when applying MIDI to your sessions.
Most of the time these entail the things that are
needed when taking control of MIDI: A sound card;
amplifiers/speakers/headphones; a MIDI cable; a
MIDI keyboard and of course a computer. MIDI
cables however are optional as some controllers may
not require a cord or external interface.

MIDI MESSAGES

Messages that are sent to a computer using a MIDI keyboard are normally
done by playing the keys on the actual keyboard or the instrument connected
to the keyboard. When the messages have been sent through they are put
into whatever program you are using with MIDI (e.g. Logic, Ableton) and
are replicated exactly to how they were played, including velocity and the
octave they were in.

BEFORE AND
AFTER
This is a screen-grab of a
basic project I have recently
completed, and although
there are many channel
layers, I have really only used
5 in-program instruments. On
the next page I will explain
how I made this and what
tools and methods I applied,
including quantizing and the different instruments that were used.
By Fraser Crossingham

INSTRUMENTS
Before deciding what sounds would add variety to the instrumental, I had to
think of and create a melody something that would play all the way
through. Excluding the bass (which kicked in after the first 4 bar and then
also played all the way through), I done this using something named
Eighties Phaser Pulse (channel 2), which is a synthesizer. Creating this
melody then gave me the idea of which other sounds I should use: deep fried
bass (channel 1, synth bass); shimmering pulse (channel 3, synthesizer);
rock drum kit (channel 4, acoustic drums); trip hop remix kit (channel 5,
ultrabeat drums) and the church choir sound (channel 13) which I had to first
make and then export as an individual file, to then import it back into the
project, as I had some technical issues. The tracks you see in the 6
th
, 7
th
and
12
th
channel are just sound effects.

Now although the instruments I picked were different in sound, they were
really just two beats copied and pasted into different positions. This makes it
seem as if the instrumental would just be similar all the way through but
that is not the case. Certain instruments didnt include certain notes when I
pressed play, adding diversity, along with more of an impact when the right
sounds were put together.

QUANTIZING
Quantizing is when, after recording a track using whichever instrument you
have chosen, you highlight every note within that track (this is done by
double clicking it, allowing yourself to go into the audio editor), and click on
the Q button.

This process automatically shifts the notes to the closest 8, 16, 32 bar etc.
(depending on what you have chosen), putting the notes in time if they are
out of sync.
By Fraser Crossingham
I used this method for all of the tracks that I recorded into their separate
channels, meaning nothing was out of time and everything was exactly
where I wanted it to be.

COLOURS
Colours are used on tracks so that you are able to clearly identify which
instrument it is, or what part of and where in the project it should be.

Looking at the first screen grab, I didnt finish but I did start to colour my
tracks to represent things such as, as I named them: the intro/main beat
(melody/red); the secondary beat (first section shimmering pulse/yellow)
and the backing rhythm (first section drums/green).

MIXER
When trying to bounce my track I encountered a few problems every time
it bounced it would be distorted. This required me to change the volume of
the channels accordingly so that they would not go red. This is called
clipping, and it tells you that the volume of the channel it is on is too loud.
You can see the different volumes in the screen grab below !
Mixer
By Fraser Crossingham
WHY MIDI HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE MAKE
MUSIC

Before MIDI came about, it was harder to make songs, as what you played
had to be learnt and memorised to be performed perfectly, and one
performance may sound different to another because of this. It was unable to
be changed, without changing how the song sounds altogether these
reasons are why MIDI is STILL a ground-breaking piece of equipment.

WHO USES MIDI?
Artists/Musicians/Producers.

WHERE IS MIDI USED?
In studios and within audio applications.

WHY MIGHT A COMPOSER FIND MIDI USEFUL?
MIDI is very beneficial to composers in a number of ways. It allows them to
connect two pieces of technology/instruments they may wish to use,
together. It also enables them to record from those instruments the notes they
desire to be played, and if they change their mind to which instrument they
would like to play those notes, it is possible for that to be done inside the
program. MIDI files are also very small, allowing them to be sent to people
in numerous ways, more than would be available than if the file was too big.

WHAT DOES MIDI MAKE EASIER?
MIDI makes it a great amount easier to record live sessions and then adjust
what you record however you see fit.

HOW WOULD MIDI HAVE AFFECTED THE WORK BY
COMPOSERS IF IT WAS AROUND 50-250 YEARS AGO?
A few composers in the 19
th
and 20
th
centuries were some of the best to ever
live. One such as Beethoven was very renowned for being a crucial figure in
the transition from classical to romantic, writing so much music it must have
been impossible to remember it all.

With MIDI he could have saved every piece of music he ever wrote,
meaning every single one would be available for the world today, instead of
just a few.
By Fraser Crossingham
This would allow so many composers of the 21
st
century to modify and
remix his compositions, creating many
more classical/romantic masterpieces,
maybe even using it in urban music
such as hip-hop or rap.
Beethoven could have also took
advantage of MIDI by playing his
musical pieces into a certain program (if
computers and Logic were around also)
and then modifying them himself,
changing the instrument from his
original, the piano, to something
different such as: the horns; violin; flute
or even a WARPED piano possibly inventing a new sound.

Verdi was also and still is very famous, more so
for being one of the greatest romantic composers
of all time, especially for how his pieces were
included in his operas. Similar to Beethoven in a
way, as he has many compositions himself and if
he also put these, along with recording opera
performances inside a computer program using a
microphone, there could be numerous outcomes
for numerous genres of music. A lot of producers
sample unexpected pieces of music, like the
coronation street theme tune or the countdown
beat (e.g. a track by South London rapper R.A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM1_b8o34ls)
. They even sample voices, and this is where I
believe Verdis operas would come into play. Using a performance from an
opera, producers of today could sample, cut and use sections from these,
turning them into iconic introductions for their instrumentals, or even
changing and reworking them into a repeating melody.

I have stated some of the pros of MIDI if it was around in Verdi or
Beethovens time, and I believe the only con is that, if MIDI WAS available
to other composers in the 19
th
and 20
th
century, they may not have been so
unique.


By Fraser Crossingham

CONCLUSION

Working with MIDI, I found it to be hugely helpful getting all my notes in
time, allowing me to create the instrumental I envisioned, quicker and with
more ease than I would have without it and even bouncing it to a small
enough file for me to Bluetooth it to my phone and send it to my friends,
something that is capable for anyone working MIDI. It was easy to get my
notes in time, as I was able to simply quantize it and it would do the work
for me. I was also able to tweak little things, such as fading in the beat on the
intro.

One thing that could have been useful but was unavailable would be the
automatic tuning of volume on the channels, this would have let me avoid
my bounce distortion problem straight away.

I would like to see a few improvements in the future such as, as I have stated
above, automatic volume tuning, maybe even the automatic editing of voice
recordings best suited to the beat depending on what you choose (reverb,
auto-tune etc.) but for now, it still serves as a giant stepping stone in the
musical waters for composers and artists alike.