if you think that MIDI is just an anooying song file that university-hosted web sites that haven’t been updated since 1996 use to get you to turn your speakers off, you are sorely mistaken.
MIDI was created around a quarter of a century ago to enable people like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson to have more than their initially-allotted number of limbs. in short, it allows two or more keyboards to talk to each other. the basic idea is that one controls the other, so that by playing, say, a Korg DW-8000, you could also be playing a Yamaha DX-7 (or vice-versa). you could also throw in a computer, or a drum machine, or a sequencer (a device that plays a predetermined set of notes from a program; basically the late-20th century’s answer to the player piano).
the point? i just got my 18 year old TR-707 to talk to my VS-880EX!
so what does that mean? that means that now i can change the drum patterns without having to re-record the rest of the song, since it will now all be perfectly matched (synced) to the beat, no matter what changes i make!
ahem… that means that i can record a basic drum track now and then go back in and add fills and spice it up later on.
what a difference a decade makes! but thanks to MIDI, i don’t have to worry about it.
