Rocktron MIDI Mate - Manual (Page 4)

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Congratulations on your purchase of the Rocktron MIDI Mate™!
The MIDI Mate™ provides many different features and modes of opera-
tion. Its modes of operation range from very simple (transmitting a single
program change on a single MIDI channel) to complex (such as transmit-
ting six program changes on six separate MIDI channels, five control
changes on five separate MIDI channels and a continuous control change
on a separate MIDI channel). The MIDI Mate™ is capable of sending
three different kinds of MIDI commands on a specified MIDI channel to
any MIDI device.
To use the MIDI Mate™ to its full potential requires some under-
standing of MIDI commands and specifications.
MIDI
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and is an
industry standard system for communication between musical equipment.
Some MIDI devices only transmit MIDI messages, these are called trans-
mitters. There are other MIDI devices which can only receive MIDI
messages, these are called receivers. In addition, there are also MIDI
devices that both receive and transmit MIDI messages which can be called
receivers or transmitters. A receiver may be thought of as a MIDI "ear",
that is to say that it listens but never speaks. A MIDI transmitter may be
thought of as a MIDI "mouth", that is to say it speaks, but never listens. A
device that can both transmit and receive MIDI may be thought of as having
a MIDI "ear" and a MIDI "mouth" that allows it to both listen and speak.
A very simple MIDI setup requires only that there be a MIDI transmitter
and a MIDI receiver - one to speak and one to listen. More complex MIDI
setups may have devices that speak and listen to each other at the same
time. The MIDI Mate™ is a MIDI transmitter, capable of changing
parameters on MIDI receivers.
MIDI Channel
A MIDI channel is simply a way of encoding a command so that
multiple devices may talk to each other using the same physical wires.
Unless messages are encoded for the same channel, the transmitted
message will be ignored by the receiving device. By encoding signals in
this manner, the MIDI Mate™ can tell a particular receiving device to
perform a certain task while simultaneously telling a different receiving
Introduction