What is MIDI?
MIDI is an electronic language that allows musical instruments to talk to each other with a digital signal.
MIDI is most often used to allow a digital instrument to control a synthesiser - hence the name MIDI Controller! A synthesiser can be considered any electronic sound producing module.
In the 1970’s, various instrument manufacturers had different music languages. In 1983, a team of industry representatives standardised one digital language and named MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). MIDI now allows all digital instruments from different manufacturers to communicate together in the same language.
Example of MIDI in use
A MIDI controller is connected to a synthesiser (which can include and Digital Audio Workstation) with a USB or 5pin MIDI cable. Press a C key in a MIDI keyboard and it will tell the connected synthesiser with a digital signal to ‘switch on’ a C note. Release the C key, and it will tell the synthesiser to ‘switch off’ the C note.
Why is MIDI great for music?
MIDI is great for music for 2 main reasons:
- It brings thousands of synthesiser and modelled sounds to the musicians providing new inspirations for creating original music.
- it brings the full power of modern music producing software to the musician. Digital Audio Workstations such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Garage Band, Reason, and many more makes easy, dynamic and professional music creation easier than ever before.
Why does Expressiv bring MIDI guitar to a new level?
The full power of MIDI has been available to keyboard controllers since its first introduction back in the 70’s and 80’s. However, guitar based MIDI controllers have lagged behind for a decades due to technical difficulty of accurate synthesiser control.
Expressiv MIDI Guitars incorporate a fretboard scanner which instantly detects which note the musician plays through the electrical contact of the string and fret - much like pressing a key in a keyboard. This removes the technical difficulty of listening to the guitar sound and figuring out which notes are played.
Now, guitar players can have the full power of MIDI at their finger tips bringing new dimensions to creating music