16

QLab and MIDI

MIDI is one of the most versatile and enduring forms of communication languages written over the past 30 years. Likely, you have heard the term MIDI before but perhaps not understood exactly what it is or how it is utilized. This chapter details both the basics of MIDI and how QLab utilizes it as an important component of its show control engine.

16.1 MIDI Basics

In the early 1980s, a team of engineers and synthesizer designers from various manufacturers devised a method of direct communication between electronic keyboards called Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI. Over the time, manufacturers adopted this method as a standard, making it a component of most electronic keyboards. In short, MIDI is a digital language ...

Get QLab 3 Show Control now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.