Hello,

I'm very new to MIDI but really want to start using it. I started to do some recording using a mixer, ESI Juli@ computer sound card and SONAR software to add some ambient background music and sound effects to my animations. So far just analog instruments but really want to expand it with MIDI.

I found a very small Casio MA150 keyboard at a right price for me to use as some MIDI controller:
http://world.casio.com/asia/emi/mini/ma150.html

Its manual says it has a MIDI send only and the MIDI specification says "MIDI channel setting (01 through 16)": http://world.casio.com/emi/download/en/manual/
It also has some "MIDI implimentation chart" on the last pages I don't understand.

I figured it's not "General MIDI". Does that mean it's useless? Would it cause problems in some ways?
Can somebody help me and shed some light on this?

Eelco wrote:

Hello, I'm very new to MIDI but really want to start using it. I started to do some recording using a mixer, ESI Juli@ computer sound card and SONAR software to add some ambient background music and sound effects to my animations. So far just analog instruments but really want to expand it with MIDI. I found a very small Casio MA150 keyboard at a right price for me to use as some MIDI controller: http://world.casio.com/asia/emi/mini/ma150.html Its manual says it has a MIDI send only and the MIDI specification says "MIDI channel setting (01 through 16)": http://world.casio.com/emi/download/en/manual/ It also has some "MIDI implimentation chart" on the last pages I don't understand. I figured it's not "General MIDI". Does that mean it's useless? Would it cause problems in some ways? Can somebody help me and shed some light on this?

GM is old and not needed, if you are plugging it into your computer to use as a controller it will be fine.
_________________
Recording Studio Suntans

I always thought GM was an universal agreement how to communicate MIDI signals between different brands of MIDI devices. And thus the way to go.
So eventhough it's not GM compliant I wouldn't get weird things like e.g. if I pressed a C-key on the keyboard, it would show up as a pitch-bend or something in my SONAR software?

Eelco wrote:

I always thought GM was an universal agreement how to communicate MIDI signals between different brands of MIDI devices. And thus the way to go. So eventhough it's not GM compliant I wouldn't get weird things like e.g. if I pressed a C-key on the keyboard, it would show up as a pitch-bend or something in my SONAR software?

GM is just a way of assigning differing "types" of sounds to a standard MIDI patch number, 1 being piano and so forth.

This is for playback though and as I have already stated, as a controlling device you are fine. You'll set your sounds to be played within your software.

You'd only be concerred with GM if you were making MIDI files to distribute and wanted to ensure they sounded slightly close to what you intended on other systems. And even then this has nothng to do with your input controller.
_________________
Recording Studio Suntans

Thank you for the info.