Midi functions, Midi function parameters, Channels – Roland EM-55 User Manual

Page 51

EM-55 OR Owner’s Manual

ENGLISH

MIDI is short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The word refers to many things, the most
obvious being a connector type that is used by musical instruments and other devices to exchange mes-
sages relating to the act of making music.

Each time you play on the EM-55 OR’s keyboard
or start the Arranger (or Song), your instrument
transmits MIDI data to its MIDI OUT socket. If
you connect this socket to the MIDI IN socket of
another instrument, that instrument may play
the same notes as one of the EM-55 OR’s parts,
select sounds, etc.

MIDI is a universal standard, which means that
musical data can be sent to and received by
instruments of different types and manufactur-
ers. Furthermore, MIDI allows you to connect
your EM-55 OR to a computer or hardware
sequencer.

Connect your EM-55 OR as shown below.

Channels

MIDI can simultaneously transmit and
receive messages on 16 channels, so that up
to 16 instruments can be controlled. Nowa-
days, most instruments –like your
EM-55 OR– are multitimbral, which means
that they can play several musical parts
with different sounds.

Note: All EM-55 OR parts are set to receive MIDI
messages. If they do not seem to respond to the
messages you send from the external controller,
you should check whether the external controller’s
MIDI OUT is connected to the MIDI INput of your
EM-55 OR.

The EM-55 OR’s transmit and receive chan-
nels of all parts have been set in keeping
with a tacit Roland standard and are there-

fore shared by all recent E, G, and RA series
instruments. You cannot change them. They
also correspond to the track assignments of
the 16-track Recorder:

MIDI Function parameters

See “Editing parameters (general procedure)” (p. 44) for how to select and set these Function parameters
(they belong to the same Function menu as the “General Function parameters”).

■ MIDI TxRx (MIDI transmission and reception)

This parameter allows you to specify which
EM-55 OR parts should transmit and receive MIDI
messages:

■ Sync Rx (MIDI synchronization)

Use this parameter to specify how the EM-55 OR
should be synchronized (as slave) to an external
MIDI sequencer, computer, drum machine, etc.

“Synchronization” is a learned term for the fact
that one device (or function) is set to start and stop
at the same time as another device (or function),
and to run at the same tempo (BPM).

Please note that synchronization is only possible
when you connect the external device’s MIDI OUT
socket to the EM-55 OR’s MIDI IN socket (though
you can also work the other way around; in that
case, see the sequencer’s manual for details).

16. MIDI functions

The EM-55 OR receives data

The EM-55 OR transmits data

External MIDI instrument/computer (*)

(*) Direct connection to computer possible via optional MIDI/Joystick cable.

EM-55 OR

Accomp 1
Arranger bass

Accomp 2
®Upper 1
Accomp 3
®Upper 2
Accomp 4

Accomp 5

Accomp 6
Arranger drums
®Lower
®M. Bass
Style Pads
D Beam part

Melody Intell
®M. Drum

Option

Meaning

ALL

All parts.

KBD

Only the Keyboard parts (see

® in the

table above).

STL

Only the Arranger parts
(A.Drums~Accomp 6).

OFF

None of the EM-55 OR’s parts transmits/
receives MIDI messages.

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