Using Your
Now let’s examine what happens when we play back a recording. When you playback a music CD (for example, a solo piano recording), you’re hearing the actual sound (vibrations in air) of the acoustic instrument. This is called audio data, to distinguish it from MIDI data.
Recording and playing back the performance of an acoustic instrument (audio data)
RecordingPlayback
In the above example, the actual acoustic sounds of the pianist’s performance are captured in the recording as audio data, and this is recorded to CD. When you play back that CD on your audio system, you can hear the actual piano performance. The piano itself is not necessary, since the recording contains the actual sounds of the piano, and your speakers reproduce them.
Recording and playing back the performance of a digital instrument (MIDI data)
Recording | Playback |
The “controller” and “tone generator” in the illustration above are equivalent to the piano in our acoustic example. Here, the player’s performance on the keyboard is captured as MIDI song data (see illustration below). In order to record the audio performance on an acoustic piano, special recording equipment is needed. However, since the
—the
Tone generator
Sequencer
Keyboard performance
(MIDI data)
However, we also need a sound source to produce the audio, which eventually comes from your speakers. The tone generator of the
Controller (keyboard, etc.)
Tone generator
Sequencer
FD
FD
Even though it is a single musical instrument, the
In the case of digital instruments, the audio signals are sent through output jacks (such as AUX OUT) on the instrument.
Finally, we’ll take a look at the actual data that gets recorded and that serves as the basis for playing the sounds. For example, let’s say you play a “C” quarter note using the grand piano sound on the
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