ETC Cobalt Family v7.1.0 - Manual (Page 1010)

Cobalt 7.1 - 20140612
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MIDI - Introduction
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The reason you can find it in a lighting console
is that MIDI today is being used for a lot more than having synthesizers to speak to each other as was
intended originally.
Basically MIDI is a standard for transmitting notes 0—127 (on/off) with velocity (how hard they are
played) and continuous controllers such as faders (volume for example). There are more parameters
but these are the basic ones. In Cobalt all keys correspond to a note and all faders to a controller.
MIDI is transmitted serially in up to 16 individual MIDI channels in one three-lead cable. The
communication is unidirectional, which means there is no feedback or intelligent bi- directional
contact between MIDI units (DMX512 is also unidirectional, while a pair of walkie talkies (for
example) are bi- directional, allowing communication both ways).
There is support for three sorts of MIDI.
Standard MIDI
Send and receive Notes,Controllers and Program Change.
MIDI Show Control
A standard set of commands is supported.
MIDI Time Code
Trig Sequence Steps by time code. There is a Learn Mode.
Once you have connected a MIDI Device to the Cobalt with the MIDI connectors in the back of the
console, you have to set up the console to receive and/or transmit MIDI, and define which MIDI
commands it will recognize.
There is a MIDI Setup where you can configure how the console will function with MIDI. See
System Settings - MIDI .