How on earth does everyone manage to have such amazing ringtones? I never thought I would see the day when my phone could do everything my computer does. The MIDI explanations from the readings was something I wish I had when I was bumping around trying to figure out why my Roland R5 was making my Roland Juno 2 sound like it was rhythmically possessed years ago. The functions of MIDI IN, OUT, and THRU was something I knew based on, "don't plug that there, it sounds bad", or "I'M NOT GETTING ANYTHING FROM THE KEYBOARD", or "Why is my piano patch coming out of your EWI".
The hardware and software setups have got to be the easiest way of explaining, versus a couple 100 pages of a manual from 1 instrument. I was the Music Director in a theater that had a budget of wish money. They wish they had the money to that kind of production. MIDI gave me the ability to have the sound of a full orchestra using 3 bodies. I requested a grant for some really good multimedia speakers to fill a theater, and let a combination of keyboards, samplers, and an electronic drum set do the work. MIDI out, came from the samplers to one board and the drums. The MIDI THRU meant the Alesis board passed on the message from the samplers, while it's own MIDI OUT sent a message to the slave keyboard's MIDI THRU which meant I played from 1 Kurzweil board. *SIGH*
My explanation from the last paragraph shows why the MIDI Pros explain it best. MIDI controllers attach to instruments as big as pipe organs. Nothing like going out into the big hall and hearing everything you played down to the nearest "oops". This has allowed me to teach piano from long distances. Some piano students don't have access to Internet, or know what artists we listen to. The diskclavier MIDI allows me to record on an acoustic piano, or some even have the living masters on a file, so you can see actually how they played it as the keys move.
The greatest feeling, is playing the piano sounding like a full orchestra. The downside is not having the orchestra and the natural tuning. MIDI, in the past, set their keyboards to A=442. I know this from years of Vegas shows. Live musicians are mixed in with effects like thunder, background singers, etc, and winds players have to make sure their instrument is tuned sharp. Singers also struggle, if they have sung the natural pitch of A=440 and have extreme high notes set at 442. The upside to that are "sick tracks" or a recording made that syncs with the MIDI tracks, when a singer cannot use their voice.
Thanks MIDI for saving us money, just don't replace us from playing.
Robyn, you sure know a lot about MIDIs. I, too, have used MIDI in pits. It does save a lot of money and the effects aren't that bad. I would rather have 3 MIDI keyboards playing a musical than to have possibly 1/3 or a pit with real instruments. Your post helped me remember a lot that I used to do with MIDI keyboards. So, in turn, thanks!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've had a lot of experience with MIDI. Your experiences regarding tuning to A=442 are interesting; I hadn't heard of that before. On some MIDI keyboards you can "tune" them yourself. I'll have to check mine to see where they are tuned.
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