Instruction Manual

1199
MIDI
Beginner’s Guide to Cakewalk Software
MIDI
Audio
Audio Hardware (Sound Cards) and Drivers
MIDI
Besides introducing MIDI in this section, we’ll explain the following MIDI
topics:
• MIDI Channels, Interfaces, Inputs, and Outputs
• MIDI Drivers
• MIDI Files, Projects, Tracks, and Clips
• Controlling Which Sounds You Hear
Short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI is a system that lets an
electronic instrument or computer control other instruments. MIDI is largely
a set of commands, called MIDI messages, that cause an electronic
instrument to play specific sounds at specific times, and also to play those
sounds in the style that you dictate. A MIDI instrument functions very much
like a player piano, only instead of using a roll of paper with holes punched
in it, a MIDI instrument needs a software program or other MIDI instrument
to turn its notes on and off. When you record MIDI, you don’t record the
sound of the instrument you’re recording—you record the commands that
play that instrument in the way you want it to be played. For example, when
you press a key on a MIDI keyboard while your Cakewalk software is
recording, the software just records the fact that a certain note was pressed
and then released—the software doesn’t record the actual sound of the
note. When you play back the recording, the software takes control of your
MIDI instrument and turns the note on and then off at the same time in the
song that you did. MIDI notes can be read and displayed by a music
notation program. Digital audio, the sound format used by CDs, Wave files,
and MP3s, can not. After you record your MIDI data you can use Cakewalk
to convert the MIDI data into digital audio so that you can create CDs,
MP3s, or Windows Media files.
MIDI has advantages and disadvantages when compared to digital audio.
MIDI files are much smaller than audio files, since MIDI data is only made
up of the commands to play instruments, instead of the actual sound of the
instruments themselves. You can usually copy one or more MIDI files onto
a floppy disk. You can easily email MIDI files. You can save a MIDI file in a
format called a Standard MIDI File, and then open it and use it in many