3.

7 MIDI
There are two ways a music can be transmitted. Either we can send he
write the form of notation,
recording of the music
arrangement,
be played
the
and
or
send
we
the
could
sheet music. At the receiving side imusinodiccaing
as per the written details, using instruments. For sheet music Ihexe.w
indicated in the
a need totohave
ismusicians
to the instruments
arrangement
the instruments whereas in sending a recording all the and
play access dif.
ficulties would lie atthe senders end. Similarly music in digital realm can be
sending the recorded
we need to have some software that can interpret themusic.
The first quite trivial But
for in these
sentthe two fons.
later type instruc-
means of producing sounds
that correspond to the appropriae
tions, and some
instruments.
interface) provides a basis for satie
MIDI(The musical instruments digital divised as a standard protocsl
requirements. Originally, MID0 was
fying these instruments, such as synthesizer
for communicating between electronicallowed instruments to be controllod
samplers and drum machines. MIDI send out sequences
automatically by devices that could be programmed to
of MIDI instructions.
that understands MIDL
Playing back MIDI files requires an instrument software can be such an
hardware or
but acomputer, equipped with suitable sound card, or held on
instrument itself. Sounds can either be synthesized on a
instructions.
disk in the form of samples to be played back in response to MIDI not
MIDIfiles are therefore a means of communicatingmusic. Because they do
digitized
contain any audio data, they can be much more compact than actual
files.
A "MIDI message" is an instruction that controls some aspect of the per
formance of an instrument. Messages are encoded in much the same way a
machine instructions: a status byte indicates the type of the message, and
followed by one or two data bytes giving the values of parameters. The nos
number
commonly used message is 'Note On' which takestwo parameters, a
between 0 and 127 indicating the note to be sounded, and a key velocity.
whenan
cating howfast the key was pressed, and the attack of the note is used values
these
actual keyboardis being pressed and to generate MIDl messages, key. When
will be sensed by the keyboard's hardware as the musician playsthe user:
the message is being generated by software, the values are specified by
Other MIDI messages are
1. Note off', which ends a note.
applied.
2. 'Key pressed', which indicates the degree of
'aftertouch to be
3. 'Pitch Bend', to change note values
dynamically.
 Fundamental concepts in video and digital audio 89

The above
Swered the paragraphs
question indicate
of how they arehow notes are produced, but leaves unan-
Typically. the sort of to be associated with particular sounds.
plers - provide avarietyinstruments
of voices. controlled
In
by MIDI -synthesizers and sam-
synthesizers, they are the case ofsynthesizers,
s they are different
different different synthesized sounds: in the case of samplers,
instrument samples. A
newvoice, using a value between 0MIDI 'Program Change' message Selects a
and 127. The mapping from
voices is not specified in the MIDIstandard. and these values to
instrument being controlled. may depend on the particular
Music can be captured as it is plaved from
a computer via a MIDI MIDI controllers attached to
interface, Although it is common to simply use he
sequencer as if it were a tape recorder, to capture a performance in real
Sometimes MIDIl data is entered one note at a time. which allows time.
to "play' music that would otherwise be musicians
beyond their competence. Fac1htes
normally found in conventional audio recording software are also
in particular, the ability to 'punch in': the start and the available
point of a defective
passage are marked, the sequencer starts playing before the beginning., and
then switches to record mode, allowing a new
version of the passage to be
recorded to replace the original.
In summary,

1. MIDI defines how to code all the elements of musical scores,

such as
sequences of notes, timing conditions, and the instrument play each note.
2. MIDI represents a set of specification used in instrument development so
that instruments from different manufacturers can easily exchange musical
information.
3. MIDI protocol is an entire music description language in binary fom.
Each worddescribing an action of amusical performance is assigned a
specific binary code.

3.7.1 MIDI Interface

A MIDI interface is composed of two different components:

1. Hardware to connect the equipment.

2, Adata format that encodes information tobe processed by the hardware.
instruments. It adds
Hardware specifies the physical conneclionsof musical
cables, and processes electrical
a MIDIport to an instrument il specifies a MIDl
Signals received over the cable.
90 Multimedia Communications

Amplitude

Note off
Decay
Sustain

Release

Note on

Figure 3.9 A Midi message.

The MIDI dataformat does not include the encoding of individual s

values such as audio dataformats. Inste ad MIDI uses aspecific data sformal
amplit
each instrument, describing things like the start and end of scores, the ha:ir
frequencies, and loudness, in addition to the instrument itself.

3.7.2 MIDIMessages
MIDI data format is digital and data are grouped into MIDÍ
a musician plays a key, the MIDI interface messages. Whkt
generates MIDI message th
a
define the start of each score and its intensity. this
message is
machines connected to the system. As soon as the musician transmtledu
another signal MIDI message is created and release uie
transmitted as shown in

3.7.3 MIDI File Format

Professional musicians use sound recording Systens that record asongw
muliple compositions of voice composition
song is mastered (lyrics)Theandtrackmusic.
on aseparate track. can beEach
handled Separaelyh
ediing as well as recording. Alter all the tracks are completely recorded
edited, they are superinposed to play simultaneously for cutting aCD.
MIDI fle format
containms chunks (blocks) of
1. header chunks. data:
2. track chunks.
 rndamental concents in video and digital audio 91

Header field Byte # Value

ldentifier string |-4 4D 54 68 64
Data size 5-8 00 (00 00 00
Data
9-14 00 00 00 01 0J E0

Data: (00 00 00 01 01 E0
File type 0
0: File Timing information based
contains onc track on the quarter note division
1: File type 1:
contains
multiple track
| : Multipleindepcndcnt track
Indicates number of track
(in this case I track of type 0)

Figure 3.10 Header chunk.

Figure. 3.10shows the details of header chunk and details of data in header
chunk.

3.7.4 MIDICommunication Protocol

The MIDI Communication Protocol use multiple messages. There are two
types of messages:

1. Channel messages.
2. System messages.

Channel messages are upto 3 bytes and first byte is status byte, second and
third bytes are data bytes.
System messages can be either common messages, real time messages or
exclusive messages.

1, Common messages are coMmon lo the complete system. These meSsages

provide for functions such as sclecting a song, setting the song position
pointer with number of beals and sending a tune request to an analog
synthesizer.
2. System real time messages are used for selting the system real time param
eters. These parameters include the tining clock, starting and stopping the
92 Multimedia Communications

resuming the sequencerfrom a stopped psition

Sequencer,
the system.
message is included sothat manufacturer Can
3. Systemexclusive
MIDIstandard. CHeN
send out sequences of MIDI
A sequencer is a
program to
devices that are automatically
controlled instruments.
instructioNS1
Review Questions
signals.
()Explain the three types of video
(2) Explain NTSC video standard.
representation.
(3) What are the advantages of digital video
(4) Explain chroma subsampling.
(5) Explain the following terns.
(a) Sampling resolution.
(b) Bit rate.
(c) Quantization error.
(d) Signal-to-Noise ratio.
(6) What is synthesized music? Explain MIDI.
(7) How synthesized music is different from frequency representation.