The MIDI Companion: Complete Guide to Using Midi Synthesizers, Samplers, Sound Cards, Sequencers, Computers and More

This book is thin and concise, I have read many books on MIDI and have found none to be as useful as this and has my full recommendation. I was prompted to write a review due the poor and inaccurate reviews that say it is out dated. Sure maybe buying a book about Microsoft operating system that is 10 years old would be considered out dated but that is far from the case here. I challenge anyone to find a more concise book explaining MIDI anywhere. If you have read another MIDI book better than this, I most likely have read it and disagree with you! All the info in this book applies to working with MIDI in this year 2005 in any audio work station today or your Akai MPC or whatever. As far as the reviewer that said their pages were stuck together, I am sorry, mine was not like that and you just got a bad copy.

This is a great book by the long-time contributor to Keyboard Magazine Jeff Rona. It eases the beginner into the basics and thoroughly covers everything you'll need to know to get started in the whacky and wonderful world of MIDI. It's a very decent reference book that should be on the shelf of all musicians who would like to take advantage of all the creative possibilities that MIDI offers.

Who would be better at writing an over view of MIDI than Mr Rona, who was one of the founders of the MIDI Manufacturers' Association? i am thoroughly enjoying this book, because it is not too technical for the average reader, and yet it does explain the internal functions of computers and digital machines to the extent of providing a good understanding of the instruments we use. i always find it useful to know a little background information to anything i'm learning, and there is a (very) short history of how MIDI was developed. the book is written in a very lively manner, with some subtle humour found in the illustrations, veyr clear (almost condescendingly simple) diagrams. the sections are structures in a logical way, so the whole learning process is very comfortable. i know nothing about computers, and wanted to really understand how MIDI works so that i can properly hook up a few pieces of drum machines/sampler/sequencer/MIDI controller i have, and i find this book very helpful. i highly recommend it for the MIDI newbie.

Very comprehensive, can get you up and running in 48 hours. A very thin book that contains the bare essentials as to familiarize yourself with MIDI and the initial steps to set up a working compilation of MIDI products. Explains concepts such as sequencers, samplers, MIDI-IN/OUT/THRU and countless more... the good part is that even though it holds great amounts of information, the book is orgenized in a way that is easily referenced in the future. It's easy... it's wonderful.

This book taught me how to put together a whole home studio with a computer adn different kinds of keyboards and synthesizers. It was clear, easy to understand and even pretty funny. I definately recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about MIDI, synthesizers, home recording, song writing or film scoring.