Producing Basic(s) - Understanding MIDI Part 3

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Hi all, sorry for the slow updates recently. We've already discovered that a MIDI sound module is essentially a MIDI instrument without a keyboard, but many current MIDI modules actually contain the equivalent of several MIDI instruments, each of which can be addressed on a different MIDI channel (we covered this last time right?). These are known as multitimbral modules, but the instruments inside are not usually quite as independent as they appear; for example, some parameters may affect all the voices globally, or the sounds may all be mixed to a single stereo pair of audio output sockets. Even so, it is always possible to change the relative volume levels of the different instrument voices and to change their left/right pan positions.

Why should you want a multitimbral module, after all, you only have one pair of hands? Well, if you're playing live, then you probably can't take full advantage of multitimbral modules (though you could use them to assign different sounds to different regions of your keyboard), but if you want to add a sequencer to your setup to allow you to make multitrack MIDI recordings, just one multitimbral module can provide you with a complete backing band or orchestra, including the drums. Before multitimbral sound modules appeared, you needed a different MIDI instrument for each of the parts you wanted to sequence(Did i proved you that this multitimbral module is helpful?).

On top of that, all MIDI sound modules have what is known as a 'maximum polyphony, which in english: the maximum number of notes that they can play at any one time. This being the case, if some of the MIDI channels are already playing very busy parts, you might find that trying to play yet another part on top causes some of the notes to drop out or be cut short. The bottom line here is that the more polyphony you have (64-note polyphony is typically the maximum for modern modules), very very very helpful especially if you're in the habit of writing complex pieces of music where lots of sustained notes overlap. This is for today, keep updating with this blog, or subscribe to the feeds, thank you, and Enjoy:)

Drum machines may also be used as MIDI modules, even though they have their own built-in rhythm sequencers. It is possible to access their sounds externally over MIDI, each drum sound being 'mapped' to a different note on the keyboard. Some MIDI drum modules, such as the Alesis D4, are specifically designed with no internal sequencing capability, just sounds.





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