Hardware Aspects of MIDI

MIDI connectors:

- three 5-pin ports found on the back of every MIDI unit

• MIDI IN: the connector via which the device receives all MIDI data.
• MIDI OUT: the connector through which the device transmits all the MIDI data it generates itself.
• MIDI THROUGH: the connector by which the device echoes the data receives from MIDI IN.

Note: It is only the MIDI IN data that is echoed by MIDI through. All the data generated by device itself is sent through MIDI OUT.

Figure 6.9 illustrates a typical setup where:

A Typical MIDI Sequencer Setup

• MIDI OUT of synthesizer is connected to MIDI IN of sequencer.
• MIDI OUT of sequencer is connected to MIDI IN of synthesizer and through to each of the additional sound modules.
• During recording, the keyboard-equipped synthesizer is used to send MIDI message to the sequencer, which records them.
• During play back: messages are send out from the sequencer to the sound modules and the synthesizer which will play back the music.