Midi questions from a Midi newbie

Hi guys...
Hoping for a little help and patience here.

I understand what MIDI does (i think), but I am not quite sure why I would want to do something like that.

For example...I have an old Ensoniq EPS with TONS of samples from back in the day etc... Why would I want to MIDI it to my MPC? It controls itself so why do I need something else to control it?

Also, I would like to somehow transfer all the sounds form EPS to MPC if possible without resampling and trimming them all. Can I do this with midi somehow?

Is MIDI more for a live stage situation or something?

Shed light?

Peace,
Heavy

In case of two samplers you only need midi for the timing. that they play at the same time and speed. the real fun in midi with the mpc is with a synth. for example you play a bassline and record it midi to the mpc. you can trigger it from there and tweak the nobs of the synth, not having to play that bassline from hand while doing so.
and you can't transfer audio data from one sampler to another with midi.

Well thanks for the reply!
You are the only one so far out of 35 views. Wow.
I didn't think it was THAT dumb of a question.

Anyway..
Your reply was somewhat helpful but I am still unclear on the applications and advantages of MIDI.

Perhaps if people aren't too busy they could write in with their examples of how (and why) they use MIDI in their home set-ups.

Thanks in advance!
-Heavy

Maybe people dont answer because there is a dedicated newbie forum elsewhere.
Anyway, I use the midi for communicating with my synth (Access Virus C). The MPC-sequencer records everything I do on the synth. It can even remember the sounds so I dont have to save them in the synth. This is done by sending SysEx to an midichannel. You can also use midi to control the MPC with a keyboard.

Thank you too Moogens!
It seems that the overseas folks are a bit more helpful so far.
Well I did check the newbie forum but maybe I am just too newb or something cuz most the stuff I saw was ultra newb. I mean like its more newb than my newb Midi questions. I am not a newb to music creation, just this machine and Midi. I was all analog until now. Plus I want answers from pro's not newbies so I post in the pro's section. Sorry.

-Heavy

heavysound wrote:Plus I want answers from pro's not newbies so I post in the pro's section.

You wil find that quite a lot "pros" go to the newbie forum and answers questions there as well.
Good luck with the midi, it can be a bit confusing. Think of midi as all the information that hasnt got to do with the actual sounds, but what should be done with the sounds.

To be honest I started to post a reply but then thought, I’m at work, why should I spend 10 minutes wasting my time when this is the sort of question that can only be answered by research. You need to go and buy a book, or speak in person to someone who knows about Midi. Even go into a music kit shop and speak to the shop assistant

Midi is a pretty simple concept at the end of the day (it’s note/musical information), but to go into all of the detail could take ages.

Yeah ok sorry guys.
I go to the search field and type "MIDI" and I get about 4000 results and after going through about 6 pages and still not finding answers I just thought I'd try asking. The only music shop around here is Guitar Center and trying to get help from those guys is futile. I agree that I need to talk to someone in person or on the phone, but who? Anyone got RZA's number?
Oh well, I've gotten this far without it, so maybe I don't need it after all. I thought perhaps Midi could somehow make things easier, but so far that is definately not the case.
Peace,
Heavy

Think of it like this

say you had two keyboards that have completely different sounds.

you like the sounds on both keyboards but only two hands so you can only play one of the keyboards at a time yourself

If you want BOTH keyboards to play their UNIQUE SOUNDS but play them at the same exact tempo, volume, pitch etc.

You connect them via midi cables.

the one that you play with your hands would be the "master"
The other one will be the "slave" and will play it's sounds automatically
when you play the "master"

youl'l be able to hear and record both keyboards even though you only have to physically "play" one "the master"

just remember that Midi doesn't carry the actual "sounds" midi carries what key was pressed and how hard it was pressed and at what pitch its in. the "sound" still come from each keyboard so the audio outputs from both instruments still need to be hooked up to a recording device,

Well now that was a bit more inciteful. Thanks!
It seems like an awefully overwhelming subject.
It's cool if nobody else wants to write in I understand.
Thanks for your time to those who did write in though.

I imagine there is a lot of assigning when hooking up the midi yes?

Like designating what key on the keyboard will play when I hit pad 1 etc...??
Sounds like a pain in the arss if you ask me. Wouldn't it be just as easy to just play the desired keyboard sounds into the MPC or into ProTools and then go back and overdub etc....

I am starting to think that it's more for a live one-man-band effect or something.

hmmmmm...

http://www.mmmm-music.com/GWHSOTA/Midifacts.htm


try that link to learn more about midi