Sound Recording Solutions
Sound Card Recorder
Powerful voice activated microphone recorder for Windows. Click here to learn more.Musical Instrument Digital Interface
Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is an industry-standard electronic communications protocol that defines each musical note in an electronic musical instrument such as a synthesizer, precisely and concisely, allowing electronic musical instruments and computers to exchange data, or "talk", with each other. MIDI does not transmit audio - it simply transmits digital information about a music performance. The MIDI Show Control (MSC) protocol (in the Real Time System Exclusive subset) is an industry standard ratified by the MIDI Manufacturers Association in 1991 which allows all types of media control devices to talk with each other and with computers to perform show control functions in live and canned entertainment applications. Just like musical MIDI (above), MSC does not transmit the actual show media - it simply transmits digital information about a multimedia performance. Almost all music recordings today utilize MIDI as a key enabling technology for recording music. In addition, MIDI is also used to control hardware including recording devices as well as live performance equipment such as stage lights and effects pedals. Lately, MIDI has exploded onto the scene with its adoption into mobile phones. MIDI is used to play back the ringtones of MIDI capable phones. MIDI is also used to provide game music in some video games. The MIDI standard was first proposed by Dave Smith in 1981 in a paper to the Audio Engineering Society and the MIDI Specification 1.0 was published in August 1983. MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another, and to exchange system information. Though modern computer sound cards are MIDI-compatible and capable of creating realistic instrument sounds, the fact that sound cards' MIDI synthesizers have historically produced sounds of dubious quality has tarnished the image of a computer as a MIDI instrument. In fact, the MIDI specification itself has nothing to do with the quality of sound produced - this varies depending on the quality of sound card and/or samples used. MIDI is almost directly responsible for bringing an end to the "wall of synthesizers" phenomenon in 1970s-80s rock music concerts, when keyboard instrument performers were sometimes hidden behind banks of various instruments. Following the advent of MIDI, many synthesizers were released in rack-mount versions, enabling performers to control multiple instruments from a single keyboard. Another important effect of MIDI has been the development of hardware and computer-based sequencers, which can be used to record, edit and play back performances. Synchronization of MIDI sequences is made possible by the use of MIDI timecode, an implementation of the SMPTE time code standard using MIDI messages, and MIDI timecode has become the standard for digital music synchronization. A number of music file formats have been based on the MIDI bytestream. These formats are very compact; often a file of only 10 kilobytes can produce a full minute of music. When a note is played on a MIDI-aware instrument, it transmits MIDI messages. A typical MIDI message sequence corresponding to a key being struck and released on a keyboard is: the user started playing the middle C note, with the specified velocity (volume); the user changed the force with which he is holding the key down (can be repeated, optional); the user stopped playing the middle C note. Other performance parameters would also be transmitted. For example, if the pitch wheel were being turned, that information would also be transmitted using different MIDI messages. The musical instrument does this completely autonomously requiring only that the musician play a note (or do something else that generates MIDI messages). All notes that a musical instrument is capable of playing are assigned specific MIDI messages according to what the note and octave are. For example, the Middle C note played on any MIDI compatible musical instrument will always transmit the same MIDI message from its 'MIDI Out' port. Which MIDI message and thus which binary digits will be transmitted upon playing of a certain note are defined in the MIDI specification and this comprises the core of the MIDI standard. All MIDI compatible instruments follow the MIDI specification and thus transmit identical MIDI messages for identical MIDI events such as the playing of a certain note on the musical instrument. Since they follow a published standard, all MIDI instruments can communicate with and understand each other, as well as with computers which have been programmed to understand MIDI messages using MIDI-aware software. The MIDI interface, converts the current fluctuations transmitted by a MIDI musical instrument, into binary numbers that the receiving musical instrument or computer can process. All MIDI compatible instruments have a built-in MIDI interface. In addition, computer sound cards usually have a built-in MIDI interface - if not, it can be separately purchased as a card and easily installed. The MIDI standard consists of a communications messaging protocol designed for use with musical instruments, as well as a physical interface standard. Physically it consists of a one-way (simplex) digital current loop serial communications electrical connection signaling at 31,250 bits per second. Only one end of the loop is referenced to ground, with the other end 'floating', to prevent ground loops from producing analog audio interference and hum. The current loop on the transmitter side drives the LED of an opto-coupler on the receiver side. This means the devices are in fact optically isolated. The opto-coupler must be a high-speed type. As most opto-couplers have asymmetrical positive-going and negative-going slew rates, they slightly alter the signal's duty cycle. If several MIDI devices are connected in series by daisy-chaining the MIDI THRU to the next devices MIDI IN, the signal gets more and more distorted (until receive errors happen because the positive or negative pulses get too narrow). MIDI connectors use standard 5-pin DIN connectors which at one time were a de facto European standard for audio interconnection. Over time the simpler American RCA phono jack has replaced DIN in this application, leaving MIDI as the only place DIN is commonly encountered in modern equipment. Standard size DIN connectors were also used for computer keyboard connections from the early 80s through the late 90s and have generally been replaced by mini-DIN connectors. Computers have 15-pin D-Sub connectors that are used for MIDI IN/OUT or joystick connection. The recommended method of connecting two 5-pin DIN cables to 15-pin D-Sub computer port can be found at MIDI.org web site. The MIDI specification very conservatively states that the maximum distance MIDI can be transmitted is 50 feet or 15m but it can normally go much further. There is a USB connection standard and a standard for MIDI over ethernet and internet called RTP MIDI being developed by the IETF. See external links below for further information. Most MIDI capable instruments feature a MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and occasionally a MIDI THRU connection in the form of five-pin DIN plugs. In order to build a two-way physical connection between two devices, a pair of cables must be used. The MIDI-THRU jack simply echoes the signal entering the device at MIDI-IN. This makes it possible to control several devices from a single source. The 1985 Atari ST was the first home computer to sport the original five-pin format - which made the ST a very popular platform for running MIDI sequencer software. Most PC soundcards from the late 1990s had the ability to terminate a MIDI connection (usually through a MIDI IN/MIDI OUT converter on the game port). The game port has been supplanted in the modern PC by USB devices, and so typically a PC owner will need to purchase a MIDI interface that attaches to the USB or FireWire port of their machine to use MIDI. In MIDI, instruments (one per channel) are selected by number (0-127), using the Program Change message. However, the basic MIDI 1.0 specification did not specify what instrument sound (piano, tuba, etc.) corresponds to each number. This was intentional, as MIDI originated as a professional music protocol, and in that context it is typical for a performer to assemble a custom palette of instruments appropriate for their particular repertoire, rather than taking a least-common-denominator approach. Eventually interest developed in adapting MIDI as a consumer format, and for computer multimedia applications. In this context, in order for MIDI file content to be portable, the instrument program numbers used must call up the same instrument sound on every player. General MIDI (GM) was an attempt by the MIDI Manufacturer's Association (MMA) to resolve this problem by standardizing an instrument program number map, so that for example Program Change 1 always results in a piano sound on all GM-compliant players. GM also specified the response to certain other MIDI messages in a more controlled manner than the MIDI 1.0 specification. The GM spec is maintained and published by the MIDI Manufacturer's Association (MMA). From a musical perspective, GM has a mixed reputation, mainly because of small or large audible differences in corresponding instrument sounds across player implementations, the limited size of the instrument palette (128 instruments), its least-common denominator character, and the inability to add customized instruments to suit the needs of the particular piece. Yet the GM instrument set is still included in most MIDI instruments, and from a standardization perspective GM has proven durable. Later, companies in Japan's Association of Musical Electronics Industry (sic) (AMEI) developed General MIDI Level 2 (GM2), incorporating aspects of the Yamaha XG and Roland GS formats, extending the instrument palette, specifying more message responses in detail, and defining new messages for custom tuning scales and more. The GM2 specs are maintained and published by the MMA and AMEI. Later still, GM2 became the basis of Scalable Polyphony MIDI (SP-MIDI), a MIDI variant for mobile applications where different players may have different numbers of musical voices. SP-MIDI is a component of the 3GPP mobile phone terminal multimedia architecture, starting from release 5. GM, GM2, and SP-MIDI are also the basis for selecting player-provided instruments in several of the MMA/AMEI XMF file formats (XMF Type 0, Type 1, and Mobile XMF), which allow extending the instrument palette with custom instruments in the Downloadable Sound (DLS) formats, addressing another major GM shortcoming. USB, FireWire and ethernet embeddings of MIDI are now commonly available, and in the long run the proposed MIDI over ethernet and internet standard called RTP MIDI, being developed by the IETF, is likely to replace the old current loop implementation of MIDI, as well as providing the high-bandwidth channel that ZIPI was intended to provide. See external links below for further information. In 1992 the MIDI Tuning Standard, or MTS, was ratified by the MIDI Manufacturers' Association. While support for this standard is not great, it is supported by some instruments and software; in particular the free software program Timidity supports it. MTS uses three bytes, which can be thought of as a three-digit number base 128, to specify a pitch in logarithmic form. Use of MTS allows any midi file to be tuned in any way desired, something which can be accomplished using the freeware program Scala (program) and other microtuners. Any device built with a standard MIDI-OUT port should (in theory) be able to control any other device with a MIDI-IN port, providing that developers of both devices have the same understanding about the semantic meaning of all the transmitted MIDI messages. This agreement can come either because both follow the published MIDI specifications, or else because for non-standard functionality the message meanings are agreed upon by both manufacturers. MIDI controller is used in two senses. In one sense, a controller is hardware or software which generates and transmits MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices. In the other more technical sense, a MIDI controller is an abstraction of the hardware used to control a performance, but which is not directly related to note-on/note off events. A slider assigned to open and close a low-pass filter on a synthesizer may be assigned to controller 18, for example. Changes in the position of the slider are transmitted along with "18" so that they are distinguished from changes in the value of other controllers.
Phone Call Recorder
Must have software for voice modem. Record all phone calls automatically, watch Caller ID information, create you own powerful answering machine. Perfect sound quality. Click here to learn more.3d audio effect - 3gp - a-law - aac - acm - adc - aiff - aliasing - amplifier - amr-wb - amr-wb plus - amr - apev2 tag - asf - atrac - audio codec - audio compression - avi - bitrate - bitrate peeling - chord - codec - comfort noise - compact audio cassette - compact disc - compression - compression artifact - compression ratio - contact microphone - container format - dab - data compression - digital audio - digital camera - divx - dolby digital - dolby digital plus - dsp - dvd-audio - dvd - effects unit - equalization - ffmpeg - flanging - fourcc - frequency spectrum - hi-fi - high-end audio - hiln - id3 - joint stereo - laser microphone - line level - lossy - loudspeaker - matroska - mcf - microphone - midi - mixing console - mp2 - mp3 - mp3 surround - mp3 sx - mp3pro - mp4 - mpeg-1 - mpeg-21 - mpeg-3 - mpeg-4 - mpeg-7 - mpeg - mu-law - musepack - music - mxf - nut - osm - parabolic microphone - pcm - perception - phonograph - pink noise - pqf - psychoacoustics - qdesign - quadraphonic - radio receiver - ratdvd - realaudio - red noise - reverberation - rhythm - ribbon microphone - riff - rmvb - sbr - signal processing - sound - sound card - sound effects - sound recording - spdif - speech encoding - speech recognition - speex - stereo - subwoofer - surround sound - synthesizer - tape recorder - tdm - tweeter - video - video compression - vob - voice analysis - vorbis - wav - white noise - wma - woofer