Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a communications protocol that enables digital musical instruments, computers, and other devices to communicate with one another. Introduced in the early 1980s, MIDI has become an industry standard, facilitating the collaboration of diverse musical hardware and software. Initially designed to control digital keyboards, MIDI allows musicians to layer sounds and interact with instruments from different manufacturers seamlessly. The protocol has evolved over the years, integrating with various technologies, including computers and mobile devices, while remaining fundamentally unchanged in its core applications.
MIDI consists of three main aspects: a message format that defines how instruments communicate, a storage format known as Standard MIDI Files (*.mid), and a physical connector system that facilitates connections between devices. The MIDI message format enables detailed descriptions of musical actions, such as note duration and velocity, translating music into actionable instructions for the instruments. While MIDI files can be easily created and shared across platforms, the playback quality may vary depending on the synthesizers used.
One of the key advantages of MIDI is its flexibility, allowing musicians to edit recorded music extensively without needing to re-record. This adaptability has transformed music production, offering more creative control over compositions while distinguishing MIDI as a type of musical notation rather than a digital sound format. MIDI continues to play a vital role in modern music creation and collaboration, bridging distances between musicians around the world.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI, which is pronounced midee) is a communications protocol that allows digital musical instruments to communicate with each other. MIDI is considered an industry standard and has been widely adopted by musicians and editors. MIDI was first invented in the early 1980s, and it has been the preferred communications protocol for producers and musicians since soon after it was released. MIDI has not changed much since it was created, but advances in the system have allowed it to work on more devices and have improved its quality.
History of MIDI
MIDI was first released in 1983, and it was originally made to control digital keyboards. When digital keyboards were first invented, they gave musicians new sounds to use in their art. Some musicians enjoyed layering keyboard sounds together. In the early 1980s, synthesizer technicians wanted to design a protocol that would allow keyboards from different manufacturers to work together. This small group of technicians discussed a protocol that could control a number of synthesizers from one keyboard. This protocol became MIDI. The technicians’ original intent was to create a system so that products from all different manufacturers could interact with each other.
Computers quickly became a part of many steps in the music-recording process, and MIDI was integrated into the recording, mixing, editing, and printing of music. MIDI was at the forefront in a musical technology boom that helped change the way music is created and even how some music sounds. MIDI remained an important part of the musical process during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. During the early twenty-first century, experts worked on various extensions and enhancements to make MIDI more useful and to work with other technology. Some of these advancements allowed MIDI to work on cell phones and made MIDI files' playback higher quality.
Three Aspects of MIDI
Even though the use of MIDI has grown well beyond its original intent, actual MIDI applications have not been drastically changed. The original MIDI system included three different aspects. It defined a message format, a storage format, and a type of physical connector. All three parts are called MIDI, but the three different aspects are different from each other.
The MIDI message format is basically a tool that allows different instruments and computers to communicate with each other. Today, MIDI is used on all different devices, including keyboards, electronic musical instruments, cell phones, and computers. MIDI helps these different devices speak the same "language." MIDI translates the music by describing what notes are being played and for how long. (MIDI also translates many other important details such as the velocity of a key stroke and the volume of the music.) MIDI tells the instruments exactly what they should be playing. MIDI turns the music into instructions, and the music is no longer a digital recording. Because of this, computers can be used to change the music after it has been recorded using MIDI. MIDI messages can be sent through channel voice, channel mode, system control, system real-time, and system exclusive formats.
The MIDI storage format is made up of the Standard MIDI Files (which have the file extension *.mid). Since MIDI is an industry standard, MIDI files can play on almost any computer and from most music programs. People can also easily make and share MIDI files using commercial software or freeware, which is software that can be used at no cost. Although these files can be shared with many different devices, not all of the devices play the files with the same quality. Some synthesizers may play a file that sounds very high quality, but another may play the same file and it sounds low quality.
The final aspect of MIDI is the physical connector that MIDI uses. Different cables and connectors are used to link MIDI instruments with each other and to computers. These cables and connectors link instruments through MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and MIDI THRU jacks. The different ports are used for different purposes. The IN port receives MIDI messages. The OUT port transmits MIDI data. The THRU port allows data to go "through" the machine, meaning that MIDI comes into the IN port and leaves without being changed through the OUT port.
Using MIDI
MIDI has created many new opportunities for musicians and has developed new musical options. Musicians with MIDI instruments can connect to each other online and play together, even if they are separated by great physical distances. Furthermore, MIDI has allowed people to make subtle or substantial changes to a piece of music after it has been recorded using MIDI.
Editing MIDI recordings is much different than editing conventional audio files. For the most part, MIDI gives editors more options than they have when working with traditional files. This is mostly because MIDI can change the notes, pitches, and other attributes of a song. For example, an editor can change a MIDI recording from B major to D major without having to rerecord the music.
Because it is digital, MIDI can be confused with digital sound, but they are actually different. MIDI is a type of musical notation, and digital sound is made up of the sound waves that are produced. This difference allows MIDI files to be changed more easily than digital sound files. Unlike digital sound files, MIDI is not used for human voices.
Bibliography
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"Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)." Portland State University Fine & Performing Arts. Portland State University. Web. 3 Aug. 2015. http://www.hansenb.pdx.edu/pdf/MIDI.pdf
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Yadav, Naina, Anil Kumar Singh, and Sukomal Pal. "Improved Self-Attentive Musical Instrument Digital Interface Content-Based Music Recommendation System." Computational Intelligence, vol. 38, no. 4, Aug. 2022, pp. 1232-1257, DOI: 10.1111/coin.12501. Accessed 30 Dec. 2022.