MIDI and Electronic Music Technology

CHAPTER 9 MIDI and Electronic Music Technology Today, professional and nonprofessional musicians are using the language of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) to perform an expanding range of music and automation tasks within audio production, audio for video, film post, stage production, etc. This industry-wide acceptance can, in large part, be attributed to the cost effectiveness, power and general speed of MIDI production. Once a MIDI instrument or device comes into the production picture, there’s often less need (if any at all) to hire outside musicians for a project. This alluring factor allows a musician to compose, edit and arrange a piece in an electronic music environment that’s extremely flexible. By this, I’m not saying that MIDI replaces—or should replace—the need for acoustic instruments, microphones and the traditional performance setting. In fact, it’s a powerful production tool that assists countless musicians in creating music and audio productions in ways that are innovative and highly personal. In short, MIDI is all about control, repeatability, flexibility, cost-effective production power and fun. The affordable potential for future expansion and increased control over an integrated production system has spawned the growth of a production industry that allows an individual to cost effectively realize a full-scale sound production, not only in his or her own lifetime … but in a relatively short time. For example, much of modern-day film music owes its very existence to MIDI. Before this technology, composers were forced to create without the benefits of hearing their composition or by creating a reduction score that could only be played on a piano or small ensemble (due to the cost and politics of hiring an orchestra). With the help of MIDI, composers can hear their work in real time, make any necessary changes, print out the scores … and take a full orchestra into the studio to record the final score version. At the other end of the spectrum, MIDI can be an extremely personal tool that lets us perform, edit and layer synthesized and/or sampled instruments to create a song that helps us to express ourselves to the masses—all within the comfort of the home or personal project studio. The moral of this story is that today’s music industry would look and sound very different if it weren’t for this powerful, four-letter production word. MIDI PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENTS One of the more powerful aspects of MIDI production is that a system can be designed to handle a wide range of tasks with a degree of flexibility and ease that best suits an artist’s main instrument, playing style and even the user’s personal working habits. By opening up almost any industry-related magazine, you’ll easily see that a vast number of electronic musical instruments, effects devices, computer systems and other MIDI-related devices are currently available on the new and used electronic music market. MIDI production systems exist in all kinds of shapes and sizes and can be incorporated to match a wide range of production and budget needs. For example, working and aspiring musicians commonly install digital audio and MIDI systems in their homes (Figure 9.1). These production environments can range from ones that take up a corner of an artist’s bedroom to larger systems that are integrated into a dedicated project studio. Systems such as these can be specially designed to handle a multitude of applications and have the important advantage of letting artists produce their music in a comfortable environment … whenever the creative mood hits. Newer, laptop-based systems allow us to make music “wherever and whenever” from the comfort of your trusty backpack. Such production luxuries, that would have literally cost an artist a fortune in the not- too-distant past, are now within the reach of almost every musician. Once MIDI has been mastered, its repeatability and edit control offer production challenges and possibilities that can stretch beyond the capabilities and cost effectiveness of the traditional multitrack recording environment. When combined with digital audio workstations (DAWs) and modern-day recording technology, much of the music production process can be preplanned and rehearsed before you step into the studio. In fact, it’s not uncommon for recorded tracks to be laid down before they ever see the hallowed halls of the professional studio (if they see them at all). In business jargon, this luxury has reduced the number of billable hours to the artist or label to a cost-effective minimum. FIGURE 9.1 Gettin’ it all going in the bedroom studio. FIGURE 9.2 Art’n Audio Studio, Tailand. (Courtesy of Solid State Logic, www.solid- statelogic.com). Since its inception, electronic music has been an indispensable tool for the scoring and audio postproduction of television and radio commercials, industrial videos and full-feature motion picture sound tracks (Figure 9.2). For productions that are on a budget, an entire score can be created in the artist’s project studio using MIDI, hard-disk tracks and digital recorders—all at a mere fraction of what it might otherwise cost to hire the musicians and rent a studio. Electronic music production and MIDI are also very much at home on the stage. In addition to using synths, samplers, DAWs and drum machines on the stage, most or all of a MIDI instrument and effects device parameters can be controlled from a pre-sequenced or real-time controller source. This means that all the necessary settings for the next song (or section of a song) can be automatically called up before being played. Once under way, various instrument patch and controller parameters can also be changed during a live performance from a stomp box controller, keyboard or other hardware controller. One of the media types that can be included in the notion of multimedia is definitely MIDI. With the advent of General MIDI (GM, which is discussed in greater detail within Chapter 10, is a standardized spec that allows any sound- card or GM-compatible device to play back a score using the originally intended sounds and program settings), it’s possible (and common) for MIDI scores to be integrated into multimedia games and websites. With the integration of the General MIDI standard into various media devices, one of the fastest growing MIDI applications, surprisingly, is probably comfortably resting in your pocket or purse right now—the ring tone on your cell phone (Figure 9.3). The ability to use MIDI (and often digital sound files) to let you know who is calling has spawned an industry that allows your cell to be personalized and super fun. One of my favorite ring tone stories happened on Hollywood Boulevard in L.A. This tall, lanky man was sitting at a cafe when his cell phone started blaring out an “If I Only Had a Brain” MIDI sequence from FIGURE 9.3 One ringy-dingy … MIDI (as well as digital audio waveforms) helps us to reach out and touch someone through phone ring tones. The Wizard of Oz. It wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if the guy didn’t look A LOT like the scarecrow character. Of course, everyone laughed. WHAT IS MIDI? Simply stated, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a digital communications language and compatible specification that allows multiple hardware and software electronic instruments, performance controllers, computers and other related devices to communicate with each other over a connected network (Figure 9.4). MIDI is used to translate performance- or control-related events (such as playing a keyboard, selecting a patch number, varying a modulation wheel, triggering a staged visual effect, etc.) into equivalent digital messages and then transmit these messages to other MIDI devices where they can be used to control sound generators and other performance/control parameters. The beauty of MIDI is that its data can be recorded into a hardware device or software program (known as a sequencer), where it can then be edited and transmitted to electronic instruments or other devices to create music or control any number of parameters in a performance-or post-performance setting. In addition to composing and performing a song, musicians can also act as techno-conductors, having complete control over a wide palette of sounds, their timbre (sound and tonal quality), overall blend (level, panning) and other real- time controls. MIDI can also be used to vary the performance and control parameters of electronic instruments, recording devices, control devices and signal processors in the studio, on the road or on the stage. The term interface refers to the actual data communications link and software/hardware systems in a connected MIDI network. Through the use of MIDI, it’s possible for all of the electronic instruments and devices within a network to be addressed through the transmission of real-time performance and control-related FIGURE 9.4 Example of a typical MIDI system with the MIDI network connections highlighted in solid lines. MIDI data messages throughout a system to multiple instruments and devices through one or more data lines (which can be chained from device to device). This is possible because a single data cable is capable of transmitting performance and control messages over 16 discrete channels. This simple fact allows electronic musicians to record, overdub, mix and play back their performances in a working environment that loosely resembles the multitrack recording process. Once mastered, MIDI surpasses this analogy by allowing a composition to be edited, controlled, altered and called up with complete automation and repeatability—all of this providing production challenges and possibilities that are well beyond the capabilities of the traditional tape-based multitrack recording process.

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