Designing Software Synthesizer Plug-Ins in C++

Chapter 3MIDI

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface or MIDI dates to 1981 when Dave Smith and Chet Wood presented a paper at the 70th Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York. Their paper was entitled The ‘USI’ or Universal Synthesizer Interface and discussed the implementation of a communication system for synthesizers, sequencers, personal computers and controllers. The communications included information about timing, configuration, note and control events, however no actual audio data was transmitted. Ikutaru Kakehashi from the Roland Corporation is also given credit for the original USI idea, as he and Smith had previously held meetings together regarding the standardization of synth connections. After a meeting between the major ...