As we have seen in the MIDI section, a controller is a mechanical device that imitates traditional musical instruments and converts the musical performance into MIDI information.
Controllers come in different forms: keyboards, flutes, guitars, harps, etc. There are even MIDI controllers that do not correspond to any known instrument: light and movement sensors, etc.
A sound module, or rack, is a synthesiser or sampling device that converts messages entering through the MIDI In port into sound. The rack must be connected to some other device that sends it MIDI information (a computer, sequencer or controller), as well as an amplifying device.
Peripherals
CD-ROMs use the same medium as music compact discs, except for the fact that a music CD only contains music, whereas a CD-ROM may also include text, graphics, encoded music, animations and digital video.
A sound card is an internal device that incorporates two functions: reproducing, by means of a music synthesiser, music encoded by a MIDI system, and recording and playing back real sounds, by means of converting the signal that comes from a microphone into binary digital information (zeros and ones) so that it can be stored by the computer. All sound cards have jacks for input and output. The most common are headphone or speaker jacks (output), microphone jacks (input), and a line in and line out (input and output)and a joystick port, which can also serve as a MIDI interface.
These instruments incorporate a MIDI controller (the keyboard) and an internal synthesiser. Most of the functions of selecting and editing tones are accessible through various command buttons, and there is usually a liquid crystal screen as well, which shows the different options selected. It is also possible to link a synthesiser up to other MIDI devices, through the MIDI In, Out and Thru ports at the back of the device. Some models also have a floppy disk drive that allows them to operate as sequencers: these models, integrating the three types of MIDI device (controller, sound generator and sequencer), are called workstations.
RTEE