USB & Velocity

Music Tech || MT CA2 - The Digital Audio Workstation

How do we connect our MIDI devices to a computer?

• We use USB connections built directly into our MIDI devices.

• These will be from Type B to A.

What are the advantages of using USB for MIDI?

• You can send MIDI data both ways, so you only need one cable for both MIDI in and MIDI out.

• It has a higher bandwidth than a DIN-MIDI.

• One USB cable can support 16 virtual MIDI ports each with 16 channels, for a total of 256 MIDI channels down one cable.

What is velocity?

How hard the key is struck when a note is played.

Why is velocity important to consider?

• Although velocity does affect the volume of an instrument, this is not the only thing that changes.

• The harder an instrument is struck or played, the tone will also change.

• Velocity control is essential to making a MIDI performance sound realistic.

How does live input work in MIDI?

• When we press record in our DAW, and press a key on the keyboard, a MIDI region will be created and recorded onto our timeline.

• When you play live, the velocities and subtle timing differences will be captured.

What is latency?

• Because the computer has to process input and output information, there will always be a small time delay.

• If your computer’s CPU, RAM and HD are not powerful enough this delay can be long enough to make it impossible to record live.