Instruction Manual

1202 Beginner’s Guide to Cakewalk Software
MIDI
A. Connect one end to an OUT on your MIDI interface B. Connect the other end to
an IN on your MIDI instrument
MIDI instruments have inputs and outputs labeled MIDI IN and MIDI OUT.
You connect a MIDI cable from one of your MIDI interface’s MIDI OUTs to a
MIDI IN on an instrument. You also connect a MIDI cable from the MIDI
OUT on one of your MIDI instruments to the MIDI IN on your MIDI interface.
The instrument that you connect to the MIDI IN of your interface is called a
controller, and typically has a piano-style keyboard for sending note on/off
messages, pitch and modulation wheels, and perhaps some sliders on it for
sending other MIDI messages to the interface. You can also get MIDI
converter modules that turn guitars, drums, and other instruments into
controllers. You can use a controller to record yourself playing in real time.
When you play your controller, the MIDI messages go to the interface, then
into your computer, and then back to the interface and to a specific MIDI
instrument that’s connected to the interface. You choose what instrument
the messages come back to by using the software. This process of a
computer sending back out the MIDI messages that it just received is called
echoing. By using echoing, you can play one MIDI instrument, but cause
other MIDI instruments to play. Your controller usually has a setting on it
called Local On/Off. When your controller is connected to your interface,
you need to set the Local On/Off setting to Local Off. That’s because if your
software is set to send MIDI messages back to your controller, when you
play a note on your controller, it is sent to the computer, and then back to
the controller again through its MIDI IN, causing it to play two notes every
time you play one note on it. When your controller is set to Local Off, it
won’t play a note on the controller when you press a key, but only when the
Note On message comes back from the computer, which happens
instantaneously. Remember to set it back to Local On if you’re going to use
the controller separate from the computer.
Standard MIDI cable—use this if your MIID interface has standard
5-pin input and output ports
A
B