(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) A standard protocol for the interchange of musical information between musical instruments, synthesizers and computers. MIDI was developed to allow the keyboard of one synthesizer to play notes generated by another. It defines codes for musical notes as well as button, dial and pedal adjustments, and MIDI control messages can orchestrate a series of synthesizers, each playing a part of the musical score. MIDI Version 1.0 was introduced in 1983.
Not Sound, The Notes
MIDI does not record analog sound waves like a tape recorder. MIDI encodes keyboard functions, which includes the start of a note, its pitch, length, volume and musical attributes, such as vibrato. As a result, MIDI files take up considerably less space than digitized sound files. Since the advent of the General MIDI standard for musical instruments, MIDI has been widely used for music backgrounds in multimedia applications due to its space-saving feature. It is MIDI technology you might be hearing as the latest mobile ring tone or on a thrill ride or attraction at a theme park. However, MIDI is only for music, not voice. See General MIDI.
Editing Is Different
MIDI recordings are edited in an entirely different manner than conventional recording; for example, the rhythm can be changed by editing the timing codes in the MIDI messages. In addition, the computer can easily transpose a performance from B major into D major. Such editing would be virtually impossible with recorded sound waves. For more information, visit www.midi.org. See MIDI sequencer, MIDI patch, MIDI voices, MPU-401, wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis and sound card.
MIDI Vs. Digitized Sound
This shows musical notes stored in MIDI compared to digital audio. MIDI is musical notation, whereas digital audio is a sample of the actual waveforms. This is a conceptual example. The binary coding is not accurate.
The Power of MIDI
This drummer is playing with two musicians in different parts of the country. They all hear the combined sound and see each other on screen (upper right). Starting in 2005, eJamming (www.ejamming.com) opened a new world of possibilities for musicians with MIDI instruments. Just like online gamers, who match their wits with players around the world via the Internet, musicians can jam with fellow artists in different venues. Due to MIDI's concise format, the "virtual band" has emerged.
Not Sound, The Notes
MIDI does not record analog sound waves like a tape recorder. MIDI encodes keyboard functions, which includes the start of a note, its pitch, length, volume and musical attributes, such as vibrato. As a result, MIDI files take up considerably less space than digitized sound files. Since the advent of the General MIDI standard for musical instruments, MIDI has been widely used for music backgrounds in multimedia applications due to its space-saving feature. It is MIDI technology you might be hearing as the latest mobile ring tone or on a thrill ride or attraction at a theme park. However, MIDI is only for music, not voice. See General MIDI.
Editing Is Different
MIDI recordings are edited in an entirely different manner than conventional recording; for example, the rhythm can be changed by editing the timing codes in the MIDI messages. In addition, the computer can easily transpose a performance from B major into D major. Such editing would be virtually impossible with recorded sound waves. For more information, visit www.midi.org. See MIDI sequencer, MIDI patch, MIDI voices, MPU-401, wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis and sound card.
MIDI Vs. Digitized Sound
This shows musical notes stored in MIDI compared to digital audio. MIDI is musical notation, whereas digital audio is a sample of the actual waveforms. This is a conceptual example. The binary coding is not accurate.
The Power of MIDI
This drummer is playing with two musicians in different parts of the country. They all hear the combined sound and see each other on screen (upper right). Starting in 2005, eJamming (www.ejamming.com) opened a new world of possibilities for musicians with MIDI instruments. Just like online gamers, who match their wits with players around the world via the Internet, musicians can jam with fellow artists in different venues. Due to MIDI's concise format, the "virtual band" has emerged.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.4.8 (Windows)
- Haihaisoft Universal Player 1.4 offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. It supports playing more than 400 media formats and the media files protected by DRM-X. Haihaisoft Universal Player has its own online ActiveX Player which supports playing protected or unprotected...
- Software downloads 2009-11-20
- Karaoke 5 37.4 (Windows)
- Player and manager of file midi Karaoke MID, KAR, KFN, WMA, MP3, CDG, WMA, AVI, MPG and WMV for executions live without loss of time. It allows to create or to modify basic Karaoke mp3 or midi with an evolved system of synchronization that allows to syncronize the text with...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- FL Studio 9.0.1 (Windows)
- FL Studio, formerly known as FruityLoops, is a fully featured, open-architecture music creation and production environment for PC. No extra software is required to produce any style of music, as the complete set of instrument and studio tools is included in the cost of the package. With the included plugins,...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- Rocket Science Bundle 3.5.6 (Mac)
- The Rocket Science Bundle are three real time audio plug-ins, exclusively for MOTU's Performer product line: Roger applies human vowel filters OO EE AH to your audio. Follo dynamically adjusts the peak of a resonating bandpass filter according to MIDI Controllers and the level of the incoming audio. Orbit...
- Software downloads 2009-11-17
- AudioFinder 4.9.8 (Mac)
- AudioFinder is the digital musician's workflow accelerator, sample management system, and music production hub. AudioFinder gathers all the most useful tools in one quick and intuitive application, enabling you to be more creative by handling all the time consuming tasks that slow down your music production. AudioFinder can build a...
- Software downloads 2009-11-15
- 2Flyer Screensaver Builder Pro 8.5.1 (Windows)
- Make your own professional screensavers with pictures, music, Flash, video, or even Web sites. 2Flyer Screensaver Builder Pro may be the most powerful tool that lets you create high-quality screensavers and share them with others. Its ease of use and robust features make it perfect for both beginner and expert...
- Software downloads 2009-11-15
- PianoRollComposer 2.38 (Windows)
- PianoRollComposer allows you to compose and play MIDI music. It works by using the standard treble and bass clef staffs, but notes are displayed in the piano roll format, so it shows music with absolute accuracy. Notes are entered directly on the staffs, and you can edit each note to...
- Software downloads 2009-11-13
- MagicScore School 6.130 (Windows)
- MagicScore School is specialized notation software for music aficionados, students, teachers, schools and colleges. The program offers people interested in music a variety of notation options--input, editing, printing, or correctness check. MagicScore School, as the name implies, has been specially created for folks who are learning music, but professional musicians...
- Software downloads 2009-11-11
- MagicScore Classic 6 6.130 (Windows)
- MagicScore is a magnificent, powerful and convenient musical editor, for those who professionally are engaged in music, seriously studies it or simply loves music and self-expression. Advantages of MagicScore: the convenient interface for a set of partitas, some variants of data input by means of the virtual keyboard, external MIDI...
- Software downloads 2009-11-11
- Music Making in MS Word 1.525 (Windows)
- Music Making in MS Word makes it easy to enhance Microsoft Word documents with music notation. The unique product has no competition, and combines advanced features of the popular music notation software, MagicScore 6, with world`s most popular text processor, allowing to produce music literature, articles, brochures or tutorials complete...
- Software downloads 2009-11-11
- MIDI Maestro MM4 4.07.03 (Windows)
- MIDI Maestro MM4 is music software designed for use by amateur and professional music directors, conductors, and musicians in live musical theater and similar musical accompaniment situations (worship bands, techno bands, karaoke, and solo-guitar backup). Dynamic, intuitive performance control is combined with powerful sequencing and editing capabilities. MM4 supports MIDI...
- Software downloads 2009-11-09
- Numerology 2.2 (Mac)
- Numerology is a modular sequencing environment designed for performing musicians. It works by giving the user an organized workspace within which they can quickly create and connect together a variety of highly functional sequencing and MIDI event generating modules. As a fully modular environment, the user can construct sequencing instruments...
- Software downloads 2009-11-09
- Guitar FX BOX 2.8 (Windows)
- Guitar FX BOX is acting just like a good collection of analog effect pedals. Just plug your guitar into the sound card input and your guitar will sing and scream. You can apply a wide range of high quality effects to guitar, voice, and other inputs real-time - I/O delay...
- Software downloads 2009-11-09
- MIDI to MP3 Converter 6.2 (Mac)
- There are many situations when you may need to convert MIDI to MP3 or WAV. MIDI files are very small, but they don't contain any audio data. Thus you cannot burn them to Audio CD directly, or play them with your MP3 player. That's where MIDI to MP3 Converter becomes...
- Software downloads 2009-11-08
- (Photos: Video guitars, crafted by hand)
- What is the point of this thing?Solidity and mass is what gives a guitar sustain.This is basically a semi acustic without sound holes...How does having a screen in the front improve the sound?...The article mentions the peformance being centered around the screen???You can get amp modelers with MIDI controls built...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-06
- Spesoft Audio Converter 2.10 (Windows)
- Spesoft Free Audio Converter is fast, stable, easy yet powerful software that allows you to convert between a large collection of audio file formats. You can convert from MP1, MP2, MP3, OGG, WMA, M4A/MP4/AAC/ALAC, FLAC, WAV, APE, WAVPACK, MUSEPACK, AIF/AIFF, MIDI/RMI, MO3/IT/XM/S3M,/MTM/MOD/UMX, AC3, ADX, OPTIMFROG, SPEEX, TTA, CDA/Audio CD and...
- Software downloads 2009-11-06
- Music Notation For MS Word 1.525 (Windows)
- Music Notation for MS Word makes it easy to enhance Microsoft Word documents with music notation. The unique product has no competition, and combines advanced features of powerful music notation software, MagicScore Maestro 6, with world's most popular text processor, allowing to produce music literature, articles, brochures or tutorials complete...
- Software downloads 2009-11-06
- MidiHID 1.0b6 (Mac)
- MidiHID transforms USB devices into powerful MIDI controllers on Mac OS X Leopard. Use it to connect any USB HID compatible device (keyboard, joysticks, game controllers... even Guitar Hero ones), to any MIDI compatible software running on your Mac. MidiHID is fully extensible thanks to configuration files that describe how...
- Software downloads 2009-11-05
- Tuning Tables for LucyTuning 1.1 (Mac)
- This small folder .sit contains .scl files to LucyTune virtual instruments with Logic 7, so that A = 440Hz. and enables users to play in tune with other LucyTuned instruments. Up to twelve named notes per octave may be used. The files permit users to experiment with different note tunings...
- Software downloads 2009-11-05
- Tablatures 1.20 (Mac)
- Tablatures is a tablature editor for Mac OS X. Tablatures is compatible with PowerTab, which is a well-known and widely adopted tablature editor for Windows systems. Thus you can share your music even with those members of your band that don't own a Mac! Moreover, you can easily...
- Software downloads 2009-11-05
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
- The best support in the Linux business
-
If Linux is going to power your mission-critical applications, you'd better have the best support known to business. Novell was rated the top provider of Linux technical support.
- Learn more >>
- The more you simplify, the more you save
-
When you transition from your existing Red Hat environment to SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, you can recognize dramatic cost savings, perhaps as much 50%
- Learn more >>
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
SmartPlanet
- Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large. Visit SmartPlanet
- More from IBM
-
- Innovate your business' process model, play against the market, compete against others on our scoreboards and WIN! Try INNOV8 2.0: A BPM Simulator
- Enabling Real-World Business Transformation through IBM Service Management Read the EMA Analyst Report
