Filter
Top Products
DDK-7 Owner’s Manual
235
Connections
13
This section explains what MIDI is, and what it can do, as well as how you can use
MIDI on your DDK-7.
What is MIDI?
No doubt you have heard the terms “acoustic instrument” and “digital instrument.”
In the world today, these are the two main categories of instruments. Let’s consider a
grand piano and a classical guitar as representative acoustic instruments. They are easy
to understand. With the piano, you strike a key, and a hammer inside hits some strings
and plays a note. With the guitar, you directly pluck a string and the note sounds. But
how does a digital instrument go about playing a note?
As shown in the illustration above, in an electronic instrument the sampled note
(previously recorded note) stored in the tone generator section (electronic circuit) is
played based on information received from the keyboard, and output through the
speakers. So then what is the information from the keyboard that becomes the basis for
note production?
For example, let’s say you play a “C” quarter note using the grand piano sound on the
keyboard. Unlike an acoustic instrument that puts out a resonated note, the electronic
instrument puts out information from the keyboard such as “with what Voice,” “with
which key,” “about how strong,” “when was it pressed” and “when was it released.”
Then each piece of information is changed into a number value and sent to the tone
generator. Using these numbers as a basis, the tone generator plays the stored sampled
note.
Example of Keyboard Information
As described above, your keyboard performance and panel operations such as Voice
selection are handled as MIDI events. All rhythm-related data – including rhythm
patterns, auto accompaniment patterns, Rhythm Sequences, etc. – also consist of
MIDI messages.
7
MIDI
Voice number (with what Voice) 01 (grand piano)
Note number (with which key) 60 (C3)
Note on (when was it pressed) Timing expressed numerically (quarter note)
Velocity (about how strong) 120 (strong)
Internal amp
Internal amp
Tone generator
(Electric circuit)
Playing the keyboard
RL
Acoustic guitar note production
Digital instrument note production
Pluck a string and the body resonates
the sound.
Based on playing information from the keyboard,
a sampled note stored in the tone generator is
played through the speakers.