![]() ![]() For those who want to see which MIDI data is arriving inside their VST-compatible sequencer application, Wally Cescato's MIDI Data Monitor ( loads as a VST Instrument and displays incoming MIDI note, aftertouch, pitch-bend and controller data on four 'LEDs', as well as providing a scrolling data display in text form. For many years, the standalone 800KB MIDIOX has performed this function for me and many other musicians with finesse, and it's still a free download from All you need to do is open its MIDI Devices window, select the MIDI input that your controller is connected to, and then you can view every MIDI message the controller generates. If you know what data you're trying to generate from your controller, the answer is to monitor what's actually coming out to see what's amiss - it may be something as simple as incoming data being sent on the wrong MIDI channel. So, given that MIDI still plays a big part in many musicians' lives, what can utilities do to enhance this experience?įor many, a big frustration comes when they're trying to make a certain controller change a particular synth parameter and nothing is happening. Moreover, MIDI controllers are an incredibly popular way to add real-time expression to MIDI performances, to automate both MIDI and audio sources, or simply to control sequencer functions from a distance. However, other musicians are eagerly snapping up these bargains, and anyone who uses a VST or DX Instrument is probably still using MIDI data to trigger it from an external keyboard. There are those who consider MIDI an outmoded technology - sales of new MIDI hardware synths are falling, and some musicians are busy selling their existing ones second-hand because they now use totally software-based sources. The majority of the utilities I include are freeware, and the few shareware ones have very reasonable registration fees considering how useful they are. However, whether you're a newcomer or an expert, there should be something for you. Many new musicians seem to be moving across to making music on their PCs after working for years on hardware multitrackers or elderly Atari ST computers, so I make no apologies for including some old favourites in the list. ![]() So this month I've rounded up some of the most useful utilities that should specifically interest the PC Musician, organised into various categories with suggested uses. Some of the best ones aren't hosted on the mainstream web sites either, but on the developer's own pages. ![]() Ironically, although such utilities are often quick and easy to download via the Internet, their relatively small size often results in them being overlooked among the morass of available files. It might help you track down an annoying problem, cure it or bypass it altogether it might provide you with a new means of generating or modifying sounds it might simply save you money you'd otherwise have had to spend on a commercial equivalent. The right freeware or shareware utility can be a godsend for the PC musician. We round up some of the best and point you to places where you can find more. MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back.Whether you're running a single PC in your bedroom or a bank of them in a professional studio, sometimes a tiny freeware or shareware utility can make the difference between frustration and elation. ![]() One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. When a musician plays a MIDI instrument, all of the key presses, button presses, knob turns and slider changes are converted into MIDI data. MIDI carries event messages data that specify the instructions for music, including a note's notation, pitch, velocity (which is heard typically as loudness or softness of volume) vibrato panning to the right or left of stereo and clock signals (which set tempo). This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example. The specification originates in a paper published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood then of Sequential Circuits at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City then titled Universal Synthesizer Interface.Ī single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. MIDI (an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. ![]()
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