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From: whinery@hale.ifa.hawaii.edu (Alan Whinery)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio
Subject: Re: Midi
Message-ID: <11403@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 11 Feb 91 20:52:45 GMT
References: <89933@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Sender: news@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
Organization: Institute For Astronomy, Hawaii
Lines: 37

In article <89933@unix.cis.pitt.edu> mager@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Rainer V Mager) writes:
>Hi, I would greatly appreciate it if some one could send me a summary on
>what midi is, what it can do for you, what does a midi keyboard do, and
>how much one would be.  I'm into writing music and such on my Amiga 500,
>but up till now I've just used programs like SOnix and DMCS and I
>reached their limitations, please reply and you might want to make it
>public here since others may be interested, thanx
>
>Rainer
>mager@unix.cis.pitt.edu

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a standard that
was settled upon by the collected manufacturers of synthesizers and other
electronic musical instruments to describe the protocol used when a 
controlling device (such as a computer) controls one or more instruments.
You can control any MIDI instrument with your Amiga, given a simple interface
and the correct software. DMCS, for instance, will do passable MIDI OUT,
(the computer controlling the synth), but can't handle MIDI IN (electronic
recording of what you play) in real time. (DMCS WILL do MIDI in, but only
note by note, as sort of a mouse substitute). 

Any synth, keyboard, or drum machine that has MIDI ports will work with 
your Amiga (given the interface and the software) and there are gobs of 
'em.

MIDI interfaces are readily available through your Amiga dealer or through
mail order, and a simple partial function (no SYNC port for timekeeping
done by drum machines and stand-alone controllers) interface to build yourself
is available (the instructions anyway) from ab20.larc.nasa.gov.
If you've never been a hardware hacker, the risks involved would justify the
expense of a commercial interface.

There is a MIDI ftp site at ucsd.ucsd.edu, with some Amiga stuff, as well 
as helpful explanatory docs.

Alan
whinery@hale.ifa.hawaii.edu