Chapter 16 Blog - Posted on 2016-01-27 by Eric Matson

This was another great session with Uncle Joey. We started off by going over all the questions I came up with, while at the same time going over certain questions from the chapter quiz. We talked about hardware synthesizers vs software synthesizers and what the difference was, also tying in the difference between MIDI and instrument tracks. Hardware synthesizers are basically anything that creates its own sound and is primarily correlated with MIDI tracks. Software synthesizers include equipment such as a MIDI keyboard, which doesnt create its own sounds, uses outside sources to create sound, and is correlated with instrument tracks. I didn't fully understand what a MIDI event was, and he cleared up that it is any recorded sound. One note could be an event, and he also explained that an entire song could be made up of multiple MIDI events. He then took me into another room to show me how MIDI used to be, needing an In, Out, Thru, input and output for speakers, and a source of electricity. Then showed me how it changed over time and now is accomplished with just a USB cable. We ended out MIDI lesson with talking about quantization. Joey explained how a click track is necessary for this, then played a few notes on his keyboard to show how quantization takes notes and lines them up perfectly with the tempo of the click track. It was very informative and I can't wait to go back down.