MIDI is a key part of most music systems, but how much do you know about its finer points? Joe Albano explains Channel Voice Messages in this short video.
Despite the rise of in-the-box workflows, there are plenty of people still using external MIDI hardware and companies developing new hardware MIDI products. And whether you work inside or outside the box or blend the two, the MIDI protocol remains much the same - it's just the type of plug you use that differs. In this short video from the course AudioPedia 109: MIDI, Joe Albano explains one of the lesser-understood features of the MIDI protocol - channel voice messages.
AudioPedia 109: MIDI
Joe explains that there are only 7 types of channel voice message - although one of them (control change) contains a subset of 120 other message types. They are:
Note On
Note Off
Pitch Bend
Key Pressure
Channel Pressure
Program Change
Control Change
Check out this video to learn about these message types and how they work in your setup, and view the rest of the videos in the course to learn much more about the fundamentals of MIDI.
Hollin Jones was classically trained as a piano player but found the lure of blues and jazz too much to resist. Graduating from bands to composition then production, he relishes the chance to play anything with keys.
A sometime lecturer in videographics, music production and photography post production, Hollin has been a freelance writer on music technology and Apple topics for well over a decade, along the way publishing several books on audio software. He has been lead writer at a number of prominent music and technology publications.
As well as consultancy, full-time journalism, video production and professional photography, he occasionally plays Hammond, Rhodes and other keys for people who ask nicely.
Hollin is Contributing Editor at Ask.Audio.
For a really well rounded explanation of this and other aspects of MIDI, I'd also highly recommend the MIDI 101: MIDI Demystified course by Peter Schwartz. It's the best course I've found yet for MIDI newbies and you might get a few laughs, too, while watching it. It can be found on this web site or on macProVideo.
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