CHAPTER 1
What Is MIDI?
Simply stated, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is a digital communications language and compatible specification that allows multiple hardware and software electronic instruments, performance controllers, computers and other related devices to communicate with each other over a connected network (Figure 1.1). MIDI is used to translate performance- or control-related events (such as playing a keyboard, selecting a patch number, varying a controller modulation wheel, triggering a staged visual effect, etc.) into equivalent digital messages and then transmit these messages to other MIDI devices where they can be used to make music and/or control performance parameters. The beauty of MIDI is that its data can ...
