5 Responses to “Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)”

1. Anonymous 10/08/23 21:16

   

   Review by for Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)
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   MIDI For The Professional, now in its second edition, is the standard textbook for college-level courses in MIDI in the US and abroad. It has received rave reviews Keyboard, the Electronic Music Foundation, the IMA Newsletter, Piano & Keyboard magazine, and many other publications. For the serious MIDI user–performer, composer, programmer, multimedia author, equipment designer–there is no better source of information. Paul Lehrman is one of the best-known authors and teachers in the electronic music and pro audio fields (and is editor of Mix magazine’s Web site) and Tim Tully, former editor of Electronic Musician magazine and technical editor of New Media, writes for EQ, Videography, and Pro Sound News, and plays a mean tenor.And there’s a foreword by Bob Moog!

2. Anonymous 10/08/23 22:06

   

   Review by for Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)
   Rating:
   This is the clearest and most complete book on MIDI there is…and I’ve tried them all. The authors explain even the most tweaky tech stuff clearly, without repetition or ambiguity. The book is essential because it doesn’t focus on specific products–which go in and out of favor–but teaches you the capabilities of the technology itself. So whether you’re shopping for a sequencer or an interface, you know what you need and how to evaluate the products out there now. These guys have been writing about electronic music for years and they’re two of the very best. They give you everything you need to work effectively with MIDI.

3. Anonymous 10/08/23 22:39

   

   Review by for Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)
   Rating:
   Although it’s showing its age, and it doesn’t cover a lot of new developments like sound cards and virtual synths, this is still an extremely valuable book for anyone who wants to understand what MIDI is all about. In this age of loops, samples, and digital everything, MIDI doesn’t have the high profile it used to, but it’s still in almost universal use by musicians and studios — even by people who don’t know they’re using it — and a good technical understanding of it is really important. This book is still the best source around for that kind of information, so it’s no surprise that dozens of college-level courses use it as a standard text. The writing is clear, concise, and often funny — these guys are two of the best and most experienced writers in the business. You want to know about MIDI? Get this book.

4. D. Rausch 10/08/23 23:23

   

   Review by D. Rausch for Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)
   Rating:
   This book is informative. Too informative. It explains everything you ever wanted to know about MIDI and in the process explains very little. Much is due to the datedness of the examples but also the over-technical presentations.

   I have a recording degree and have been working with MIDI for years and years, so I know a thing or two about MIDI, recording, etc. But this book, while highly championed for the educational landscape, tends to be one of those “assigned but never read” projects in academia. Within a few pages, the authors are extremely self-indulgent about the minutest details of hexidecimal code. It takes no time to become lost and discouraged, and completely misunderstand what MIDI is all about. The problem is, this book isn’t written for programmers either. So who is the target audience? Well, everyone, really, and that’s the disorganized, wandering tendency you’re sifting through, as the book tries to make everyone happy. There are pages that are far too technical for all but the most geekish of programmers, and pages that are so boring and elementary for the most inexperienced of newbies. There’s no clear separation as to where one is to go. Nomatter who you are, you’ll be following along fine one minute, then stranded in the land of hex the next.

   I find this book extremely self-satisfying and an insult to those who have a legitimate interest in truly learning the ways of MIDI. For the time it was written, it certainly left no stone unturned, but at times it drags on and on about a dead-and-buried point of non-interest, and other times it doesn’t explain itself enough. It’s intent is noble and unbelievable amounts of effort have gone into the world of MIDI but I can tell you one thing, if you know nothing about MIDI and really need to learn, this book will make you want to give up before you even get started. I can’t think of the right demographic to recommend this to, so unfortunately I do not recommend it at all.

5. Joseph L. D'Agostino 10/08/24 00:10

   

   Review by Joseph L. D’Agostino for Midi for the Professional (Music Sales America)
   Rating:
   I’ll probably be reproved for this, but I give this book a high rating. I bought this book back in the mid 90s, shortly after it came out, and it proved to be quite useful. My studio is both modest and outdated, with its old Alesis synthesizer, Cakewalk software, and some other old stuff. But I learned a lot from this book, and it provided information that I used (and still use) to keep each piece of equipment speaking efficiently to the other pieces. For me, at least, I benefited especially with regard to “program changes” and “continuous controller applications.”

   Regarding the tons of information in this fine book, I must say, Yes, it might contain much more detailed information than the average reader anticipated when ordering this book, but is that a bad thing? And now, many years later, some of the text is indeed outdated. But if you want to dive into the genuine beauty of MIDI, this is a great pool to jump into. I enjoyed the “hard” stuff, the stuff that makes the reader think deeply. This book is nicely produced (typical of Amsco); it is grammatically sound, contextually worthy, and for the price, a very good deal.

   Joseph L. D’Agostino, author of “Modern Music Systems: a new perspective on music scales, clefs, and chords”

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