1Introduction to MIDI

Chapter co-authored by Adam Olson, Shenandoah Conservatory

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) has been around for over 30 years and shows no signs of slowing down or being replaced. MIDI is a control protocol that sends performance data between multiple musical instruments and sequencers. Instead of starting with the history of MIDI in this chapter, let’s get right into what it is and how you are going to be using it. The difference between this book and most other books on the subject of MIDI is that we are going to take a very practical approach to using this tool and focus a lot less on much of the underlying data.

Ten things you need to know about MIDI:

  1. MIDI is everywhere.
  2. MIDI is incapable of making sound ...

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