Learn Synthesis with Pure Data S01E05 – Converting MIDI to Audio
Converting MIDI to Audio
Learn Synthesis with Pure Data S01E05 – Converting MIDI to Audio
MIDI is a protocol that communicates musical actions on devices such that they can speak a universal language. In synthesis, MIDI information needs to be converted into something that digital audio components and software can understand in audio terms. This is a basic demonstration of this as we build a MIDI input module for our virtual synthesizer that we are making in Pure Data. In this lesson we will take in MIDI note and velocity data and utilize it to control our main signal producing oscillator. The viewer will start to see the overall virtual synthesizer that we are building start to come together now that we have gone over some of the basic fundamentals required in learning about synthesis.
It is fundamentally important to understand that MIDI data is not digital audio. MIDI does not communicate sound, but rather, it communicates information about the notes being played, how they are played, and different control signals that can communicate all kinds of aspects of the musicality of a performance on a MIDI device. In this episode, we learn how to convert this MIDI data into sound using Pure Data. As we build this synthesizer in Pure Data, we will see how to make a MIDI input module that takes in MIDI data from a MIDI controller to drive the synthesizer. This lesson shows how virtual instruments turn MIDI performances into sound generation. This is indeed what is happening behind the scenes in virtual instrument plugins. This is yet another step in building a virtual synthesizer in Pure Data.
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