Roland E-80 Musical Instrument User Manual


 
The how-to’s
E-80 Music Workstation
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18. MIDI
MIDI is short for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”. The acronym refers to many things, the most obvious being
a connector type that is used by musical instruments and other devices to exchange messages relating to the act of
making music.
When you play on the E-80’s keyboard or start song or Style playback, your instrument transmits MIDI data to its MIDI
OUT socket (or to the USB port). If you connect that socket to the MIDI IN socket of another instrument, the external
instrument may play the same notes as one of the E-80’s parts, select sounds, etc.
MIDI is a universal standard, which means that musical data can be sent to and received by instruments of different types
and manufacturers. Furthermore, MIDI allows you to connect your E-80 to a computer or hardware sequencer. (You can
also use the USB port for MIDI applications.)
Connect your E-80 as shown below.
MIDI can simultaneously transmit and receive messages
on 16 channels, so that up to 16 instruments can be
controlled. Nowadays, most instruments –like your
E-80– are multitimbral, which means that they can play
several parts simultaneously with different sounds.
Note: All E-80 parts are set to receive MIDI messages. If they do
not seem to respond to the messages you send from the external
controller, check the MIDI connections and the channel settings
on the E-80.
The transmit and receive channels of the Keyboard
parts are set as follows:
Note: The VOCAL HARMONIST only transmits and receives set-
ting changes and MIDI note messages. The audio signals it
receives and generates are not converted into pitch informa-
tion.
The how-to’s
Accessing the MIDI functions
Do the following to gain access to the MIDI functions:
(1) Press the [MENU] button.
The display changes to:
(2) Press the [MIDI] field.
(3) Press the OUTPUT [MIDI] or [USB] field to specify
which socket(s) to use for MIDI applications.
The MIDI and USB options are mutually exclusive: if
you select “USB”, the MIDI sockets are not used, while
MIDI communication via USB is impossible when you
select “MIDI”.
Transmits MIDI IN data
The E-80 transmits data
External MIDI instrument/computer (*)
E-80External MIDI instrument
The E-80 receives data
(*) MIDI communication via the USB port is also possible.
Keyboard part Recorder track
UP1 4
UP2 6
UP3 13
LW1 11
LW2 14
MBS 12
MELODY INT 15
VOCAL HARMONIST 16