What is a MIDI and what is firewire for?

Question

I am attempting to purchase items so that I can use my computer for all my recording needs. Vocal recordings, songs ect. One of the packages is:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-Audiobox-USB-Recording-Package?sku=243008

And some of the items I just don't understand what they are for. I wanted something so that I could just plug a condenser mic into my cpu. This package seems ok, but I saw a MIDI connection and on another page I saw a firewire, would you please explain this to me?

Answer 1

Hey Spoiled. Midi is commonly used to connect certain digital instrumstuments to a computer like a Keyboard. Check this link for a good example.



http://www.midipage.nl/uk_midi_aansl_1.html



It allows you to compose music on the computer and play it through the Keyboard, or play on the keyboard recording a musical document that you can later edit note by note or instrument by instrument depending on what "voice" you use in your composition.



Firewire is a connection for your computer similar to USB. It was developed by Apple and is popular in Musical and Video production.



It also may be possible that the "other" kit you refer to has a port that would allow you to plug in a firewaire device as a source for recording.



Be sure to determine what connection the muical kit you purchase needs to plug in to your computer. If it requires Firewire (called IEEE1394) be sure your PC has it.



The kit you linked to uses USB which is common enough.



I tried to keep this simple. Hope this helps. Good Luck.



Mike

Answer 2

Firewire:

FireWire is Apple Inc.'s name for the IEEE 1394 High Speed Serial Bus. Apple intended FireWire to be a serial replacement for the parallel SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus while also providing connectivity for digital audio and video equipment The system is commonly used for connection of data storage devices and DV (digital video) cameras, but is also popular in industrial systems for machine vision and professional audio systems. It is preferred over the more common USB for its greater effective speed and power distribution capabilities, and because it does not need a computer host. Perhaps more importantly, FireWire makes full use of all SCSI capabilities and has high sustained data transfer rates, a feature especially important for audio and video editors. Benchmarks show that the sustained data transfer rates are higher for FireWire than for USB 2.0, especially on Apple Mac OS X with more varied results on Microsoft Windows.



Midi:

Midi is an old skool type of sound file, but is still used today.

Answer 3

MIDI connection ==> used for connecting MIDI-compatible devices... these could be synthesizers, keyboards (piano organs), or other musical instruments that can output midi signals.



FIREWIRE connection ==> mainly used for data transfer... this connection is mostly used for transferring VIDEO data... it is best to have this (just in case).