Reference Guide

1541
MIDI
Beginner’s guide to Cakewalk software
MIDI
Besides introducing MIDI in this section, we’ll explain the following MIDI topics:
• “MIDI channels, interfaces, inputs, and outputs” on page 1542
• “MIDI drivers” on page 1544
• “MIDI files, projects, tracks, and clips” on page 1545
• “Controlling which sounds you hear” on page 1547
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 different programs. You can record MIDI
music as slowly as you want, and then change the tempo in your software to play it back at any
tempo you want. Audio files, however, can only play back at approximately the same tempo they
were recorded at without drastically altering the sound quality. It’s easy to edit and transpose MIDI
files, since they are so small and you’re just editing commands, not actual sound. MIDI files can be
printed out as standard musical notation or lead sheets. It can be harder to make MIDI music sound
as natural as audio. If you don’t record MIDI music in real time, it can sound mechanical. Some MIDI
instruments, especially some of the acoustic-sounding instruments such as brass, strings, and
guitars that you find on the built-in synthesizers of low-priced sound cards, sound artificial. However,
percussive sounds usually sound quite good on MIDI instruments, and are much easier to record
than a real drum set. You can also play back MIDI data through any number of hardware or software
samplers that use recordings (samples) of any instrument you can imagine as sound sources.
For more information, see:
“MIDI channels, interfaces, inputs, and outputs” on page 1542