Some midi questions

well im taking a midi class next semester at my local community college and i dont know the first thing about the subject. Here a few questions
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1.If i compose something in Cubase, and tell one of my midi channels(which is connected to a korg EA-1) to play that will it send a signal to the machine to produce those tones through the audio output(that is linked to a speaker) or will it generate the tone on the machine and send it back to the software and make the tone on the computer.

1b. Could i make it so that it program everything on the synth and it is entered into a memory of some kind storing those notes, for later playback.

2. If i were to link together 5 korg electribes EA-1 via midi cables would they all be synced together in terms of tempo and the start of a bar?

3.Since i used rebirth im really used to creating patterns then orginizing those patterns. Is there a similar way to do this in midi?

4. if i were to get the midiman 10x10 how many independent channels would i have? how many indepentend instruments could i control(so that another doesnt synth plays the same exact notes as another)?

5.is there a way to adjust the frequency cutoff quickly(like doing a scribble scratch)? or any other of the myriad knobs via midi?

6.what is a good interface for compisition?

7. whats a good book to learn more about MIDI? im looking for something for someone with no knowledge?

[This message has been edited by MRT1212 (edited 01-29-2001).]

Hiya,
here goes...

1. The answer is you can have it any way you want. You can tell your computer to play the notes through your computer speakers or you can tell your computer to send the notes to the midi out port in which case your synth will play the notes.

PS- If you get your computer to generate the sounds, it will sound terrible. You want to go for the second option and have the sounds (or tones as you call them) coming from your synth.

1b. You can save whatever masterpieces you create onto a normal floppy disc. You can then go back anytime and load the data into your computer and have the whole thing play back.

As for storing it onto your synth... well, it depends on whether your synth has a sequencer with a floppy disc drive. If yes, then there is no problem. If no, then you can either continue to connect your synth to your computer or you can purchase an external sequencer.

But... incase you were wondering... you can't store the songs directly onto your synthesizers memory. Sorry.

2. Yes, they would all be perfectly synced together but I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to connect 5 electribes together anyway. It seems like a kind of crazy thing to do.

3. I don't understand the question.

4. i. You would have 16 midi channels.

ii. You could control any amount of instruments that you want (you connect them up by a process called "daisychaining") just so long as each instument in the chain has a "midi thro" port then it'll be fine.

iii. With most modern synths, drum machines and samplers you can set them to ignore a certain range of midi channels. This means that each instrument would play excactly the part that you want it to play and they wouldn't all be playing the same parts.

5. Yes.

6. Most people seem to use Cubase VST, although many people prefer Cakewalk or Emagic Audio. Personally, I use an old program that nobody seems to have ever heard of and that they don't make any more. It's called Magix version 2.

7. I've yet to come across a good book for midi, but I'm sure there must be one out there... somewhere.


Hope this helps. Good luck.

David.