MIDI Setup |
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What is MIDI? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
It is a language enabling synthesizers and computers to exchange
musical information. Thanks to this system, the computer can record the notes you
play on your musical keyboard and take control of a musical
synthesizer to play your scores and compositions. Physically, this communication is established by one or two
cables connected between the computer and your musical
instrument. Note that low quality synthesizers do not always have
a Midi interface, which makes them unable to communicate with a
computer. To be certain of a MIDI compatibility, look at the back
panel of the instrument. There must be at least one or two
connectors of the following type : with a label In, Out or Thru A Macintosh or a PC does not natively contain a MIDI
connector. This adaptation is done using a Midi interface. On Macintosh, a Midi interface is a small external box. It
comprises connectors necessary for Midi cables and it has a cable
which can be connected on the back panel of the Macintosh (USB
port). On PC, the Midi interface is very often presented in the form
of an electronic card installed inside the computer or also a
little box connected to USB. An adapter is connected to the back
and lets you connect the Midi cables to your musical instrument. Midi devices have one or more Midi connectors. A Midi cable
only allows a one way communication. If you have for example a
Midi synthesizer with a keyboard, it must at least have 2 Midi
connectors. The first will be labeled Midi In (Midi
input) and enables the synthesizer to receive musical data from
your computer. The second Midi connector will be labeled Midi
Out (Midi output) and lets the synthesizer send the notes
you play on the musical keyboard to the computer. A third Midi
connector is often present, labeled Midi Thru. It is a
Midi output sending a copy of the data coming from the Midi
In connector of the instrument. It is a Midi echo which can
be used to connect another Midi devices that needs to receive the
same MIDI messages. When you connect Midi devices together, it is necessary to
keep that information in mind. A connector is either an input
(Midi In) or an output (Midi Out or Midi Thru). A Midi cable
must ALWAYS be connected between an output of a device and the
input of another device. Any other combination will not work. Here are diagrams of most current connection setups between a
MIDI device and a computer. To install your Midi interface correctly, read its
installation manual. Also take care to install the driver
software of the interface (MIDI and sound card drivers for
Windows). This installation should normally be explained in the
MIDI interface user manual. A Midi cable does not transport sounds but only information
concerning the notes which are played on the keyboard as well as
other information used to configure a synthesizer. The
connections explained above relate only to the Midi aspect. If
your synthesizer does not have an internal speaker, you need to
connect its audio output to an amplification system connected to
loudspeakers, such as a Hi-Fi system. If you have a sound card,
its audio output must be connected either to an external
loudspeaker provided with the card or to your Hi-Fi system.
Consult your card or synthesizer manual. The rest of this lesson will explain to you how to tell
Pizzicato what is your musical material and your Midi interface.
Before doing so, be sure that your Midi interface or sound card
is correctly installed. Be certain that connections are correctly
established, by looking at the above examples. Also check that
your musical material is switched on. An important remark applies if
you have a MIDI cable for a sound card (Windows). On one side, it
is a large plug adapted to a sound card connector, also called
Joystick port (sometimes this cable has a similar female domino
plug, enabling the connection of a joystick at the same time).
Two MIDI connectors can be found on the other side of this cable.
One is called MIDI IN and the other MIDI
OUT. These names correspond respectively to the MIDI
input and the MIDI output from the computer viewpoint. Considering the preceding
diagrams, it is thus necessary to connect the MIDI IN plug into
the MIDI OUT connector of the synthesizer and vice versa. The inversion of this connection is a
very frequent cause of MIDI failure. To connect it wrong
fortunately does not destroy anything, but MIDI communication is
not established. At installation, Pizzicato
selects itself a simple MIDI setup that should work in most cases
without any further modification. In case of problems, or if you
want to fully use all MIDI resources from your sound card, here
is how to adatp MIDI setup. If you have problems with the MIDI
setup, do not hesitate to contact our support department. MIDI configuration [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In the Options menu, select the MIDI
setup... item. The following dialog appears: Pizzicato communicates with a MIDI device through what is
called a MIDI Port. Each Midi port is a bi-directional terminal
communication between Pizzicato and your musical instrument. When
a Midi message is sent to your musical instrument, it goes
through the Midi port. Similarly, when you play notes on your
keyboard, this information is received by the Midi port and
Pizzicato can process them. The Midi configuration dialog box shows MIDI inputs on the
left (in blue) and MIDI outputs on the right (in red). Most
Pizzicato versions let you use one input and one output, and
Pizzicato Professional or Composition Pro may use up to 16 inputs
and 16 outputs. In most cases, one or two Midi port(s) will be
enough. After the first installation, Pizzicato selects an input port
and an output port according to your computer configuration. To test an output port, click the little white square just
left to the port. A series of notes is sent to this MIDI port by
Pizzicato. If you hear them, the port is well connected. You may modify the input and output ports by double-clicking
on one of them. Double-click on the output port. The following dialog
appears: Here is a description of each field: Double-click on the input port. The following dialog
appears: Here is a description of each field: To add or delete a MIDI input or output port, right click with
the mouse to get the contextual menu. One item lets you delete
the clicked port and two others let you add an input or output
port. With the same menu, you may ask Pizzicato to automatically
configure MIDI. By doing so, the present MIDI setup is removed
and Pizzicato creates a port for each input and output found
existing in the computer. You may then personalize it as
explained above. According to the material you possess, here are the most
common situations. In this case, no Midi interface needs to be connected. On
Mac, providing that the "QuickTime Synthesizer"
extension is installed, you can select this choice on the
MIDI output port. You can close this dialog by clicking on
its close box. Double-click the input port and select the Associated
driver corresponding to the name of your interface, such
as Mpu-401, MusicQuest, Midi Input,
SB MIDI IN
and validate. Do the same for the
output port. If no item is available in the Associated
driver menu, it means that the Midi interface card was
not installed properly. Re-examine the instruction manual of
your card and take care to correctly install, otherwise
Pizzicato will not have access to MIDI. If your Midi interface has several inputs and outputs,
they will be available in the Associated driver
menus. With Pizzicato Professional, you may add input and/or
output ports, as explained above, and configure them so they
will answer to each MIDI interface available. The principles exposed in the previous step also apply.
Use the Midi input port to select the Associated driver corresponding
to the MIDI input of your card, such as Mpu-401, MusicQuest,
Midi Input, SB MIDI IN
With regard to the output, this kind of card contains at
least 2. If you use an external synthesizer connected in
Midi, use the output MIDI port to select it (for example the
item Mpu-401, MusicQuest, Midi Output,
SB MIDI OUT
). A sound card generally has an integrated synthesizer which
can be selected in the Associated driver output
menu. You may add another MIDI output port (Pizzicato
Professional and Composition Pro only) to
access it. According to the sound card you have, you will
probably find two possible choices others than the MIDI
output. Modern sound cards often contain an FM synthesizer - FM
Synthesis (Yamaha OPL3) - and another more
sophisticated but whose name depends on the constructor of
your card. The order of the output and input ports is not very
important. MIDI port 1 is selected by default for instruments
in a new score, so preferably use Midi port 1 for the
synthesizer you will use the most. If you use a Midi keyboard without an integrated
synthesizer, you will need to set the echo associated with
the MIDI input to the MIDI output port associated to the
synthesizer of the card. This will let you play on your
keyboard and directly hear the notes executed by the sound
card synthesizer. Select a synthesizer [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] In Pizzicato Professional and Composition
Pro, the synthesizer selection list contains almost one
hundred synthesizer models. The other versions only contain the
standard GM (General MIDI), GS (Roland), XG (Yamaha) lists, as
well as a generic list by numbers (MODELE-1). The synthesizer selection list enables you to specify the
model of card or synthesizer you have. Pizzicato must be able to
know the sounds available on the instruments, the MIDI channels
that can be used, the special effects available (reverberation, chorus
) as well as various specific
characteristics of your instrument. The list of synthesizers contains several
synthesizers and sound card on the market. If your synthesizer or
sound card is not in the list, see the remark below. Most sound
cards use the GM standard, GS (Roland) or XG (Yamaha). For GM,
select the Gm-1 item in the list. If necessary, you can connect several
synthesizers on the same Midi interface. It is the case for the
last connection example drawn at the beginning of this lesson
(synthesizer with keyboard + sound module). You just need to
configure two MIDI ports (only with Pizzicato Professional or
Composition Pro) with the same interface and
respectively associate them to the first and the second
synthesizer names. It will be necessary to disable some MIDI
channels of your synthesizers and to slightly reconfigure your
synthesizer in order to avoid communication conflicts. For more
details, see the lesson on the synthesizer configuration. Remark If you do not find your synthesizer or
sound card in the prepared list, here is how to proceed.
The other versions of Pizzicato only contain the
standard GM (General MIDI), GS (Roland), XG (Yamaha)
or a list with numbers only (MODELE-1).