Basic MIDI for Beginners MIDI, stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface,   MIDI is a controlling language. As you will see below, MIDI is just a protocol which allows computers to talk to each other Synthesizers and samplers all include little computers that contain the various sounds and samples that we hear when we play the keyboard keys. What MIDI allows us to do is control these little computers using a universal language. That way, when we make a MIDI recording, the MIDI connection is “playing” those keys. (Think of old-time player-pianos using piano rolls. Tiny music-boxes are another good example.) MIDI does not ever transmit audio. Synthesizers and samplers transmit audio on audio cables. MIDI only transmits data on serial MIDI cables.
Axon Guitar MIDI converter   No sound module but this is the best converter made Each note on your MIDI guitar can be assigned to a different sound on your sound module		Instruments like the Roland GR-33 come with their own sound modules, and they are driven directly from the tracking circuitry from the MIDI Guitar HINTS AND TIPS The following tips and guidelines might be useful to anyone using a MIDI guitar in conjunction with a sequencer or with external expander modules. • Always ensure that your guitar synth and any expander modules are set to the same MIDI pitch bend range. • To record a guitar part using complex string bends, the sequencer must be set to record on all MIDI channels simultaneously. On Creator/Notator, this is achieved by setting the track channel to 'Original'.
Instruments like the Roland GR-33 come with their own sound modules, and they are driven directly from the tracking circuitry from the MIDI Guitar It is important that any guitar you intend using with a MIDI guitar synth system is properly set up. This means the split pickup should be mounted as close to the bridge of the guitar as possible. The visible MIDI connectors on an instrument are female 5-pin DIN jacks. There are separate jacks for incoming MIDI signals and outgoing MIDI signals. The jacks look like these: 13 pin Jack, This connects to guitars 13 pin out Jack and  from there it goes to the converters 13 pin in Jack. 5 pin Jack, this connects to your sound module (Roland JV-1080) from your converter MIDI out MIDI IN MIDI OUT You use MIDI cables to connect the MIDI jacks of various instruments together, so that those instruments can pass MIDI signals to each other. You connect the MIDI OUT of one instrument to the MIDI IN of another instrument, and vice versa. For example, the following diagram shows the connection between a computer's MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard that has built-in sounds.		Roland GI-20 GK-MIDI Interface
MIDI is an extensive set of "musical commands" which electronic instruments use to control each other. The MIDI instruments pass these commands to each other over the cables connecting their MIDI jacks together. There are many different MIDI messages, and each one correlates to a specific musical action. When a musician pushes down a key on a piano, the piano makes a sound. Or, he can begin dragging a bow across a violin string to start a sound. The action of starting a sound can be described as "Note On" in MIDI terminology. Most instruments also allow the musician to stop the sound at any given time. For example, the musician can release that piano key, thus stopping the sound. Let's refer to the action of stopping a sound as a "Note Off". In a nutshell, MIDI is a set of commands that electronic devices digitally pass between their MIDI jacks to tell each other what to do (ie, what actions to perform).		• Guitar synths tend to generate occasional spurious, low velocity, short duration notes due to handling noise while playing. These can often be cleaned up by using the 'delete notes shorter than...' function in your sequencer. Similarly, double-triggered notes can be removed by using the 'check for duplicated notes' function. • If the slow attack of the sound you are using is making it hard to play in time, pick an alternative sound with a more positive attack to use while recording the part. You can easily switch back to the original sound once the part has been recorded in your sequencer. Alternatively, monitor the conventional guitar sound as played through a practice amp.
A single MIDI connection carries sixteen (16) separate CHANNELS. These 16 channels will correspond to a 16-channel capability on any MIDI-enabled synthesizer/sampler. Each of these channels can contain its own discreet and specific set of MIDI messages. You could set your synthesizer in the following way:		• Make full use of any sustain or hold pedal functions available to help when playing sustained chords. Such functions as 'note length quantize' and 'force legato' can also be used to good effect to create certain musical styles.
MIDI channel 1 = piano sound MIDI channel 2 = organ sound MIDI channel 10 = drum-kit MIDI channel 12 = electric bass sounds		• Because the MIDI data from a guitar synth is always slightly late, timing-wise, try applying the negative delay time on your sequencer to bring the existing sequencer tracks (especially the drum part) forward by a few tens of milliseconds while recording the guitar synth. This will fool you into playing a little early, and experimentation will determine what negative delay time is right to offset the inherent delay of the synth. You can then use quantization if further precision is required, but over-specialization can easily ruin the feel of a performance. If your sequencer has it, try using the 'percentage quantise' function. Don't forget to turn off the negative delay once the guitar part has been recorded.
If the above settings are set using whatever synthesizer/sampler you use, you could then record (or sequence) MIDI data on each of these channels. In programs like Pro Tools, Cubase, and Logic, you can make multi-track MIDI sequences. For instance, you could make Track 1 correspond to MIDI 01 (or Channel 1), Track 2 correspond to MIDI 02, Track 3 correspond to MIDI 10 and Track 4 correspond to MIDI 12. Now, if you think about it, recording the MIDI information is easy. Using a keyboard controller of some kind, you can record “Note On” and “Note Off” messages on Track 1, which corresponds to MIDI Channel 1, which contains a piano sound. When I record my MIDI note events, and then play them back, I will hear a piano playing back the music I recorded. Again, if I go to Track 2, I know that I’m now sending data to MIDI Channel 2, which contains an organ sound. When I play back my recording, I will hear the organ music from MIDI Channel 2 and the piano music from MIDI Channel 1
There are two main advantages of MIDI -- it's a completely editable form of data, and it's a compact form of data (think in terms of kilobytes instead of megabytes
Because MIDI is a digital signal, it's very easy to interface electronic instruments to computers, software can store MIDI messages to the computer's hard drive. So, a musician can digitally record his musical performance and store it on the computer. He does this not by digitizing the actual audio coming out of all of his electronic instruments, but rather by "recording" the MIDI OUT (ie, those MIDI messages) from a MIDI controller. These "notes" and other musical actions, such as moving the pitch wheel, pressing the sustain pedal, etc, are all separate messages. The messages can be easily edited, on a “per instrument” basis because each instrument's MIDI messages are on a different MIDI channel. In other words, when using MIDI, a musician never loses control over every single individual action, from playing a particular note at a particular point, to pushing the sustain pedal at a certain time, etc. The data is all there in such a way that every single musical event can be easily examined and edited. For instance, consider performing a MIDI sequence of Beethoven’s first Piano Sonata. You play it beautifully the first time around—except you hit the wrong note in the very last measure. No problem; you can just edit that one individual note and “shift” it to correct the error.		The Marshall JMP-1 MIDI Guitar Amp Lets you change programs with your MIDI guitar