This is part of a FAQ series! Please share and comment if you found any of these articles helpful 🙂
- What is Soundstage?
- What is Latency?
- What is Timbre?
- What is MIDI? (You are here)
- What is XLR?
- What is SPL?
- What does Sibilant mean?
- What is the Sennheiser Veil?
- Do Headphones Need to be Burned In?
- How Do Noise Cancelling Headphones Work?
Hi there friend, and Welcome!
What is MIDI?
This a question that has always puzzled musicians, producers, beatmakers, and enthusiasts including myself!
Before we get into it.. grab a snack, sit back, and relax because…
You’ve come to the right place!!
We’ll also give a great MIDI Keyboard recommendation and take a trip down memory lane at the very end, so stick around like scotch tape, and let’s dive in.
What is MIDI?
What is MIDI?
MIDI Controller
Years back when I was first getting serious about making music (around 2007), a guy working at Sam Ashe told me, “It’s just a device that you use to play sounds from another source.”
Unlike a traditional Piano or Keyboard, A MIDI controller doesn’t actually play anything on its own. Think of it as a middleman or transmitter of information. A couple of quick examples would be the Korg padKONTROL and AKAI MPD18; the former of which I still have, and the latter I sold.
Controllers like these store the sounds that you program them to store (from a soundbank, sampler, VST, plugin, etc.)
You then tell it to play those sounds back through a Sequencing program by pressing pads or keys on the MIDI Keyboard or MIDI Controller.
- Related: How to Choose a MIDI Keyboard
Speaking of, let’s outline the differences between a MIDI Controller vs. a MIDI Keyboard.
Midi Musical Instrument (aka synthesizer, keyboard)
MIDI Synthesizers, MIDI Keyboards, or MIDI musical instruments do generate sound, in addition to generating MIDI data. So you press a key and hear a note. In other words, they are programmed with sounds already built in.
Many on the market come with hundreds of different built-in preset instrument sounds, enabling you a ton of flexibility and creative possibilities.
Additionally, MIDI keyboards also allow you to record this sound when hooked up to your computer.
This is called MIDI data, and it’s recorded into a sequencing program like FL Studio, Reason, Apple Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, etc.
You can also connect something like a MIDI synth to a drum machine or sampler, and control that device through MIDI commands.
- Required Reading: How To Use A Synth In FL Studio
To Recap:
- MIDI is not music.
- MIDI does not contain any actual sounds.
- MIDI isn’t a digital music file format like MP3 or WAV.
MIDI is data, and that’s it. The data is interpreted by your CPU or an audio-enabled MIDI synthesizer.
MIDI synths and keyboards, in essence, emulate instruments, through sound banks or third-party hardware and software. They also have sounds baked in.
MIDI controllers play sounds that they’re programmed to play (from outside sources), but don’t have any sounds built in.
Novation FL Key Mini
The FL Key is an example of a MIDI Controller that can technically still be called a MIDI Keyboard because it contains piano-style keys, but it cannot produce sounds on its own.
MIDI sequencers
I’ve talked ad nausea about how your DAW isn’t just your sequencing software, but rather 3 components that come together to form a DAW:
- Your CPU
- Your Audio interface/Soundcard.
- Your sequencing software
In short, it’s called a sequencer because it records the data (the MIDI event) that you play in real-time, in the same exact order in which you played.
- Related: How To Choose A DAW
Now you may be wondering, How does this MIDI device hook up to your computer?
Why are you asking so many questions, homie? Haha just kidding.
Most of the time you’ll simply plug the Keyboard into your PC via USB.
Many years ago, the only way to connect a MIDI keyboard to a PC was through 5-pin MIDI DIN cables connected to a MIDI interface box, but times have changed considerably and that’s no longer necessary.
Still keep some around
Nowadays, many interfaces like the Universal Audio Volt 2 come with the old 5-pin connections if you want to go that route, but it’s not required. For instance, I connect my Korg Volca Keys synthesizer via the combo TRS/XLR input on the front because it doesn’t have a USB jack.
- Related: How To Use A Synth In FL Studio
If using legacy cables, you will need two of these per MIDI device. One cable transmits the digital data and the other receives it.
Recording
The fun part about using MIDI is that it’s easy to edit and play with. Press record, play a note, and BAM! There it is.
No fuss no muss.
Programs like Reason and FL Studio make it really intuitive.
Once the chunk of data appears (as dots, bars, etc.), the sky is the limit to what you can do.
A shortlist of what you can do with MIDI:
- Copy and paste it
- Drag and drop it
- Lengthen or shorten it
- Adjust the volume
- Stereo Pan
It goes on from there. Once you’re done, just export as WAV or MP3 and get famous!
Virtual Instruments
It doesn’t stop there, no siree bob.
We touched on the fact that MIDI synths and keyboards (the hardware components) can emulate pretty much any type of instrument there is.
Taken a step further, you can emulate instruments from inside your sequencing software as well.
This is made possible through plug-ins, or more specifically, VSTs.
For example, Reason has a bunch of built-in virtual racks that emulate a plethora of different hardware such as synthesizers, samplers, signal processors, sequencers, and mixers.
MIDI Controllers like the Novation FL Key Mini come bundled with an array of software including plugins like XLN’s “Addictive Keys” which contains some of the best Grand Pianos in the world. These can then be added to your instrument rack and played on your MIDI keyboard as if you were playing the actual piano. As you can probably gather, the possibilities are vast and there are almost no limits to what you can do.
This is in essence what a VST is. Imagine if you physically had to buy each of these racks or instruments. You’d quickly run out of space in your house and it would clean you out faster than spicy Mexican food on a hot summer’s day, that’s for darn sure.
The convenience of a VST is priceless in today’s world and makes creating music all that much more accessible.
So how is all this programmed? Glad you asked. Through VST (Virtual Studio Technology) which was developed by Steinberg back in 1996.
Powerful stuff indeed!
Closing Thoughts
If you take nothing else away from this article, just remember this: MIDI is not actual music, it doesn’t contain any actual sounds, and it isn’t a digital music file format like MP3 or WAV.
It’s simply data and is interpreted by your CPU and DAW.
As for my new in-the-studio MIDI partner?
That’s the FL Key by gum, and it’s an amazing product.
Learn More:
Well that’s about it for today my friend. I hope I’ve answered the question What is MIDI, and that you came away with some valuable insight.
Questions? Comments? Requests? Did I miss the mark on something? Please let me know down below or Contact me!!
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What are you currently working on? I would love to hear from you. Until next time…
All the best and God bless,
-Stu
Be sure to check out my Reviews and Resources page for more helpful and informative articles!
My MIDI Backstory
Spring 2006
When I first learned about MIDI, I actually didn’t learn a single thing. Lol.
Back during my first foray into college, I took an electronic music class. It was a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong.
The professor however was a bit over my head, to say the least.
He never fully explained concepts in a way I could understand.
I have no doubt he was on another level, but as a teacher, he didn’t convey his thoughts effectively.
Even though I didn’t have a good grasp of MIDI, I still produced some decent music now lost forever in the MySpace chasm. Does anyone remember MySpace? Leave a comment below.
In any event, the professor required us to use Apple Logic, and somehow I was able to record myself playing instruments and ultimately sequencing songs.
And no, as much as I “liked” the professor as a person, he didn’t really teach us anything. Making music was all so foreign to me, but I had a lot of fun with it; getting the creative juices flowing in the studio after hours when no one else was around and learning on the fly.
The building we recorded in was eerie, especially at dusk. Part of the reason for this was the non-traditional, horizontal windows that were built at the very top of the room near the ceiling. This allowed only a small amount of light in, and looking up at the slowly darkening sky always left me with a strange feeling. Don’t ask me why.
It could be that the rooms and hallways contained very small spaces, tight corridors, and a whole lot of silence. Even though I recorded by myself, I remember looking over my shoulder more than a few times, as it always felt like someone was watching me.
Thinking back on it brings back a lot of bittersweet memories, as well as quite a bit of nostalgia as I’m writing this.
Winter 2007
This was my very first studio space, Circa 2007 in my old room
My Studio in various stages over the years
It wasn’t until 2007 that I actually learned about MIDI.
I’ve always been a huge fan of music, but to this day my true love remains beatmaking and hip-hop in general.
Many people out there can’t fathom how a person can listen to a beat with no lyrics; it just blows their mind.
Beats are compositions too (just like Gingers are still people), and though I will agree that they can be repetitive (the beat not the ginger lol), it doesn’t change the fact that a good beat is truly a work of art.
If you have any background on sampling, you will know what I mean. But I digress…
Long story short, I wanted to make beats but had no idea where to start. I didn’t know what I would even need to start.
So I drove to the Sam Ashe on Capital Blvd. In Raleigh N.C., marched up to the salesman and loudly exclaimed, after no greeting whatsoever, “I WANNA MAKE BEATS!”
Just kidding. I perused around a bit until the obligatory “Can I help you find anything?” sounded in my ear.
“Yeah well, I wanna make some beats dog.”
Kidding again.
He introduced me to the KORG padKONTROL, and the rest is history.
A lot of guys are into the analog stuff (think MPC 2000XL), and while I respect it, I’ve never been that guy.
I’m more of a visual person. I like to see everything before me on the screen.
Does that make me an amateur? Maybe. But I don’t really care. I just want to make beats.
After using the padKONTROL for a while, I tried the MPD18 but found the pads very unresponsive and hard. The device also wasn’t very fun to use so I sold it. It lacked the intimacy of the padKONTROL, but I’ve since moved on from both and now use the FL Key Mini; easily one of the best purchases I’ve made for my studio.
Learn More:
Coming Soon!
