MIDI

What is MIDI?

The letters MIDI stand for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, which is the name of a worldwide standard for digital signals and connectors that makes it possible to exchange musical data between musical instruments and computers (machines) produced by different manufacturers. MIDI compatible equipment can exchange keyboard key press, key release, tone change, and other data as messages. Though you do not need any special knowledge about MIDI to use this digital piano as a stand-alone unit, MIDI operations require a bit of specialized knowledge. This section provides you with an overview of MIDI that will help to get you going.

What you can do with MIDI

Send

MIDI cable: MK-5

Sender

OUT

IN Receiver

MIDI musical instrument

MIDI sound module

MIDI sequencer

Other MIDI device

•What you play on the digital piano can be sent to the connected device as MIDI messages*1. The connected device sounds notes in accordance with the messages it receives.

•MIDI messages*1 can be sent from the digital piano to a commercially available MIDI sequencer*2 for recording.

Receive

MIDI cable: MK-5

Receiver

IN

OUT Sender

MIDI musical instrument

MIDI sequencer

Other MIDI device

•The digital piano can be used to sound notes sent as MIDI messages from a connected device.

•Commercially available MIDI piano data can be sent from a MIDI sequencer*2 or MIDI-capable personal computer for playback on the digital piano. Up to 16 parts can be played simultaneously by the digital piano.

*1 Keyboard play and memory playback data can be sent as

MIDI data. Demo tunes cannot be sent as MIDI data.

*2 A device that contains memory storage for MIDI data. Some MIDI sequencers feature external storage capabilities, which let you record a virtually unlimited number of tunes.

MIDI Connections

Two MIDI cables, one for sending and one for receiving, are required for two-way recording and playback capabilities with a connected MIDI sequencer or other device.

MIDI Channels

MIDI allows you to send the data for multiple parts at the same time, with each part being sent over a separate MIDI channel. There are 16 MIDI channels, numbered 1 through 16, and MIDI channel data is always included whenever you exchange data (key press, pedal operation, etc.).

Both the sending machine and the receiving machine must be set to the same channel for the receiving unit to correctly receive and play data. If the receiving machine is set to Channel 2, for example, it receives only MIDI Channel 2 data, and all other channels are ignored.

This digital piano is equipped with multi-timbre capabilities, which means it can receive messages over all 16 MIDI channels and play up to 16 parts at the same time.

Keyboard and pedal operations performed on this digital piano are sent out by selecting a MIDI channel (1 to 16) and then sending the appropriate message.

Simultaneous Receive Over Multiple Channels (Multi-Timbre)

The Multi-Timbre mode makes it possible to assign the piano’s built-in tones to MIDI channels 1 through 16. Then you can simultaneously sound multiple channels to play from a commercially available multi-track sequencer.

NOTE

•See “Assigning Tones to Individual Channels” on page E-22 for details on assigning tones to each channel.

•Up to 16 channels can be received simultaneously (Channel 1 through channel 16).

•The number of channels to be received simultaneously must be predetermined. If it becomes necessary to cancel a channel, the cancel operation must be performed on the sending side.

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