Music 256a/CS 476a | Fall 2016
Lecture 6: External Control of Synthesizers
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
Stanford University
Controlling Synthesizers
The premises: CV/gate
MIDI
- Stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface
- Standardized in 1983
- "Universal"
- 8 bits transmitted at 31.25 kbit/s
- Still used as "the" standard
MIDI Specs (overview)
- 16 Channels
- 128 Programs
- 128 Continuous Controllers (CCs)
- Note on/off events including note number (0-127) and velocity (0-127)
MIDI and computers
- MIDI predates the "personal computer era"
- Each operating system deals with MIDI in a different way (of course!)
- Notion of built-in GM synth
