MISC: MIDI, CC and PC explained
For those who never worked with MIDI (MusIcal Digital Interface) it may be confusing.
First of all MIDI never transmits sound! It only transmit commands.
Commands like: play note A4, stop the sequencer, adjust the volume, change to another program, set the phaser on,...
MIDI has 16 different channels. This means you can control 16 different midi-devices.
For instance you could have this situation:
- MIDI 1: AXE-FX
- MIDI 2: VG-99
- MIDI 3: not used
- MIDI 4: Drummachine
- ....
- MIDI 16: not used
MIDI has values from 0 (mimimum) to 127 (maximum).
As guitarist we are mostly interested in 2 MIDI-commands,
PC (program change) and CC (control change).
I explain them with some examples:
PROGRAM CHANGE:
In MIDI we have 127 program changes we can send.
Let's asume we want to send a PC to program 18 on MIDI 1 (Axe-Fx).
01: M01 AXE-FX C:C 1:018 2:OFF | M01: MIDI-channel 1
C: PC (Program Change) 018: Value 18 |
CONTROL CHANGE:
There are 127 different CC's . These CC can control things like set DRIVE on/off, adjust the WAH freq,
set TAP-TEMPO.
You must set these CC in your MIDI-Device. Some MIDI-devices have CC that can not be changed
(Line6, Boss).
Other companies like Fractal Audio you can set those CC yourself.
For me CC1 is Drive, CC11 is Phaser, CC14 is Tempo, CC15 is Tuner, CC33 is External 1 for my WAH-freq.
So if I want to turn my PHASER on I will set on MIDI 1 (Axe-Fx) a CC11 (Phaser) with value 127 (maximum).
on 01M01 AXE-FX C:B 1:011 2:127 | M01: MIDI-channel 1
B: CC (Control Change) 011: CC 11 127: Value 127 (maximum) |
Hope this makes things more clear to you :)