Estimated reading time 2 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Have you heard about MIDI and need to know what it is? Do you want to know how it can help you create music? MIDI is short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It’s an industry-wide open-source keyboard design protocol proposed by Sequential Circuits in the 1980s, and it’s still relevant today. Keep reading Powerful Popular MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to find out what it is, and what it can do for you.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
What’s Musical Instrument Digital Interface #1: What Is MIDI?
MIDI is used in a wide variety of apps, programs, music gear, and performance related devices:
- MIDI is unusual because it has stayed relevant for so long. Also, it’s unusual because an otherwise very competitive and proprietary industry put the good of musicians first.
- How did it do that? MIDI allows all your gear and apps to communicate with each other regardless of what company you bought it from…
- … and the really stunning thing is that’s it’s entirely backwards compatible. This means that a synth from 1983 will be able to control the sounds from a virtual sound module from 2025. That’s a span of over 40 years!
What’s Musical Instrument Digital Interface #2: Sound Modules and Controllers
MIDI can work with a wide range of devices:
- Two of the most common are sound modules (which are basically synths without a keyboard) and controllers.
- How do you play the sounds in a sound module if it has no keyboard?
- You can do it using a variety of performance controllers.
Performance controllers can include:
- Keyboard (the most common type)
- Guitar
- Violin
- Wind
- Drum pads
- Touchscreen
What’s Musical Instrument Digital Interface #3: Sequencing and DAWs
Also, MIDI works with sequencing software, which is like a recording studio for synthesizers. However, a sequencer doesn’t record sound, instead it records data:
- What note you played
- When you played it
- How hard you hit it
- How long you held it for
- What sound you used
It also records aftertouch, pitch bend, and control change messages. Because it records digital information rather than recording sound, it makes editing tracks very flexible.
These days, sequencers are typically integrated into digital audio workstation (DAW) software:
- That way you can record audio and/or create sequences using a wide range of softsynths.
- Thus, it helps to remove the barriers between you and your creativity.
- It also helps with the pro-audio side of things, because it can control a soundboard’s automation, such as: faders, pan pots, EQ, sound effects, and a whole lot more.
Another advantage of MIDI is that you can synchronize different devices:
- For example, at a live concert, you could use MIDI time code to sync up the lightboard, smoke machine, and pyrotechnics.
- Similarly, in the recording studio, you can sync up live tracks with sequences.
- You do this by setting up a click track for the vocalists and instrumentalists to help them keep time with each other and with the sequenced parts.
This is especially important when the audio tracks have been recorded in different locations and at different times, allowing for internet collaborations.
Mobile users: for best results viewing the video, rotate your screen 90o to the right.
Video: The Future of MIDI
Final Thoughts
Takeaway points:
- MIDI allows your musical gear (controllers, sound modules, programs, and apps) to communicate with each other.
- Despite being 40+ years old, it’s still backwards compatible with vintage equipment.
- Over the years, it has expanded to include a staggering number of non-keyboard devices, including the ability to sync with video.
Have fun writing!
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