MIDI - The complete lowdown?

Okay, I'm finally getting curious about MIDI and virtual instruments after playing around with the Native Instruments B-4 at friend's house.

So, to all you guys using MIDI: I know CEP doesn't record it, so I have an old copy of Cakewalk 9. Do I absolutely need to have a MIDI-in slot on my sound card in order to use these virtual instruments? I don't generally record into the computer, so my sound card is just a crappy little Avance card that came with the computer. It doesn't appear to have any MIDI in.

Is there anything else I need in order to connect a keyboard to the computer and control virtual instruments? Is there a decent "MIDI for dummies" tutorial anywhere? I've looked all over the net and even the basic MIDI primers assume a level of knowledge I appear not to have.

I mean, I've been devouring info about audio the last few years, but till now I've never had the slightest interest in MIDI so I know, like, absolutely nothing about it. I barely even know what it is.

Any assistance from some of you MIDI gurus?

thanks,
Chris

Chris - I have a good bit of external MIDI hardware that I am pretty proficient with (hardware sequencer, sound modules, keyboards, reverb, etc). It's good-quality stuff, so I have not ever bothered with PC-based MIDI stuff. At least until Ozpeter started talking recently about SynthEdit and soundfonts and piqued my curiousity. So I also recently have embarked on a crash course in learning PC-based MIDI. I have a few questions of my own that I need answered, and have been toying with the idea of starting a thread similar to the one you have just started. So let's try to get you up to speed, get my questions answered as well, and construct a mini-tutorial on PC-based MIDI that will be helpful to those interested in softsynths and soundfonts. This subject is pretty solidly tied to CEP / Audition in that you can play a multi-track MIDI file and record the sound output (not MIDI code output) with CEP / Audition, and then further manipulate the sound. Then burn it to CD, or make MP3 files, etc.

So, to start - a few questions:

1. What operating system do you use? Important, because Windows includes a MIDI soundset licensed from Roland that is a simple version of their Sound Canvas and it is really quite nice (compared to PC-based soundsets, not external hardware soundmodules). It is called "GM.DLS". In Win98 it is at Windows>System 32>Drivers. In my version of WinXP it is just in Windows. Don't know about Win2K, etc.  You can use a program such as Awave Studio to extract the individual sounds from GM.DLS and turn them into *.SF2 soundfont files.

2. Do you have Winamp installed on your computer? On Win98, I am discovering that this is the only player that can access the GM.DLS soundset. I can't get to it with Windows Media Player up to 7.1, Calkwalk Pro 9 or through "Control Panel > Multimedia > MIDI tab. But with my version of WinXP, the GM.DLS is the default soundset used by WinXP. I haven't installed Cakewalk on the WinXP machine yet. But since it seems to default to the Windows default, I'm assuming that Cakewalk will also use the GM.DLS soundset.

3. You do not need a MIDI port on your sound card to be able to manipulate MIDI files with MIDI software or play them through Winamp, Windows Media Player, softsynths, etc. But you would need to copy MIDI files to your hard drive before you could do this. There is even software that will turn your computer keyboard into a music keyboard - with the ability to play chords and all. So you could technically "play" a song and record it with MIDI recording software, and thus create your own MIDI files. Or use Step Entry. But either of these approaches will be painfully slow compared to what you could do if you had an external music keyboard connected to your computer. But for that connection, your audio card would need to have a MIDI In Port. If you have a slot available on your MOBO (motherboard?), get a cheap Soundblaster.

4. There are loads of MIDI files available on the Internet. Later on in the thread, after I have had time to pull together a few good links, I will post them here.  You can use these if you don't have the ability to create your own.

5. When training people in computer-related functions, I have had best results by outlining a project I want them to complete. That gives them a focus for their learning efforts that helps avoid the "where do I start in order to learn this stuff" syndrome. I will suggest that approach for you. What would you like to do? Think of something rather straighforward and reasonably simple. Tell us here, and we will tell you the MIDI information you need to know in order to make it happen. When you have successfully completed that project, tell us another one. We can then repeat the process. As you learn things about MIDI, your projects can get correspondingly more complex. And we will have constructed a tutorial in the process.

thanks for the reply, bonnder:

Basically, I'm just interested in being able to connect my keyboard to the computer and control vst instruments like the Native Instruments stuff - and record it, obviously.

I don't have much interest in playing with other people's midi files, although I will of course want to be able to edit my own. I'm assuming there's some way to render MIDI files to wav files?

I had assumed this was something that would require software other than CEP/Audition. Geez, I'm such a beginner on this stuff. It's kind of intimidating. I'm still not quite clear on the difference between VST instruments, MIDI, soundfonts, etc. This is all just totally brand-new to me.

I don't necessarily expect anyone to give a whole MIDI primer in a couple of posts - I was just hoping for a nudge in the right direction. And from what you're saying, it looks like I'm going to have to get me a soundcard with a MIDI in.

So, if I have such a soundcard, plus a keyboard with MIDI out, plus a multitrack program like Cakewalk or Samplitude (both of which I have access to) that accepts VSTi, is there anything standing in the way of me turning my keyboard into a Hammond, via the Native Instruments B4 software? I'll then of course move the recorded files back to CEP - dang that Cakewalk interface is UUUUGLY! Samplitude's a little better, but fooling with these other programs has really reminded me how incredibly intuative-feeling (and *looking*) CEP/Audition is.

Oh, I've got Windows XP Pro.

thanks,
Chris

And from what you're saying, it looks like I'm going to have to get me a soundcard with a MIDI in.

Not necessarily... do you have a game port of any description on your PC? For most 'normal' soundcards, it's the gameport that gets repurposed as a MIDI port - all you need is the converter lead, and they don't cost much.

Go to Guitar Center and ask for a.. Game Port to Midi Converter cable.  They'll have them for about 20 bucks and your set.

 

MIDI uses serial communications ... but you can't use the standard COM1 port because of the wierd BAUD rate. The MIDI/GAMEPORT has its own baud rate crystal timebase. The normal COM ports go 300,600,1200,2400,4800,9600,19.2K,38.4K etc. which has no possibility of being 31.25K BAUD for MIDI.
I found that out the hard way by trying to generate MIDI codes from an old TRS-80. Can't be done. You have to construct your own hardware to emulate MIDI code!!!
 
Otherwise, you could download MIDI files more easily for analysis!

Whoops, you lost me there Robert.

Are you saying that the game port *isn't* going to work? I'm not at my computer to check, but I'm fairly certain I do have a game port on it, and I was gonna stop on the way home tonight and grab one of the converters Steve & Voodoo mentioned.

CHris

COM port does not equal GAME port.  The GAME port is a DB15 and colored YELLOW on modern motherboards.

Whoops, you lost me there Robert.

Are you saying that the game port *isn't* going to work? I'm not at my computer to check, but I'm fairly certain I do have a game port on it, and I was gonna stop on the way home tonight and grab one of the converters Steve & Voodoo mentioned.

CHris

He's talking about the serial com ports (the ones that you used to plug old mice and external modems into) - not the games port. If you have a games port (that's the D connector with 15 pins, not 9), there's no reason at all that you shouldn't be able to configure it. I haven't tried this yet, but I believe that if you enable your on-board sound (if you have it on an ATX), the games port that this gives you access to should work fine. I really ought to try it sometime and see...

Alrighty - I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the help, folks.

Chris

i just bought a midi controller the other day.  i was hating midi myself, but something made me decide to go ahead and give it a try.  it seems to be alright so far.  the controller that i bought works through USB, so there is no need for a midi port.  simply plug it in to a usb port on your pc, and off you go.

m-audio oxygen8 is the name of the controller.

I've done it with the game port, and it does work.  I picked up an E-MU SoundEngine for cheap a while back, and have an old Miracle Piano keyboard.  I can make MIDI stuff work both ways - but playing existing MIDI files is about the limit of my capabilities and MIDI knowledge.

I looked at that Oxygen8 thingie. The idea of going in via USB is way cool, but no way I could live with 25 dinky little keys.

I guess it depends on the needs of the user. For a lot of people, it sounds like any little keyboard will do fine for their purposes. But I need to really be able to PLAY the thing, so I think my digital piano should do the trick.

Chris

... is there anything standing in the way of me turning my keyboard into a Hammond, via the Native Instruments B4 software?

No.

Your keyboard simply generates MIDI code.  Play up a storm.  At some point, that code will be directed by you into the Native Instruments B4 software (do you have a link for that?), and if done properly, you will enjoy what you hear.

The "art" is going to come in patching all that MIDI code through the correct ins and outs of the various technology standards that are out there.  That is where you are going to need to develop some skill.  And that is why I mentioned downloading MIDI files.  You can use them to start practicing changing sound banks, making program changes, turning vibrato on and off, increasing and decreasing the volume, adding the right amount of reverb, panning each channel so each instrument sits nicely in the mix, adding chorus effects, and using or not using sustain.  All of these are controlled through MIDI code.  If you have Cakewalk Pro 9, you can see a good bit of this if you have a MIDI file that makes use of it.  And all of this can be done without an audio card that has a MIDI In port.  But if all you can do is play through the funky little sound set that comes with some of the cheaper sound cards, you might get discouraged.  There is a world of difference between the cheesy sounds and what the Sound Canvas stuff in the GM.DLS sound set sounds like.

** Edit - oops - you did say you have WinXP Pro.  So if you are using Windows Media Player you should be hearing the GM.DLS sounds.  But if you play through Cakewalk, do you hear the same sounds?  I haven't loaded Cakewalk on my WinXP computer so I don't yet know the answer to that question.  </End Edit>


I'm still pulling some links together and also some questions.  I still want to put together a bit of a tutorial and get some of my questions answered in the process.  Groucho, sounds like you still have a few questions of your own.

I'll get the ball rolling.  Anybody care to give a short description that would highlight the differences between the following:  DX; DXi; VST; VSTi; ASIO; DLS; SF2; Direct Sound; and any others in the general category that I may be forgetting?  In my efforts to find a MIDI player that would use the GM.DLS sound set, I ran across all of these terms - as each player could handle its own subset of these technologies, but not all of them.

Winamp is till the only MIDI player I have found that will let me switch among sound sets.  I installed Windows Media Player 9 on  Win98 SE and that defaults to the GM.DLS.  Now when I launch Windows Media Player 7.1 on Win98 SE, it also uses the GM.DLS sound set, where it did not before.  Interesting.

zemlin Posted:
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I've done it with the game port, and it does work.

Same here.  FWIW, when I first started out (using Cakewalk) I had an SR-16 drum machine hooked up to my game port and it worked fine.