The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol has been widely
accepted and utilized by musicians and composers since its conception in the
1982/1983 time frame. MIDI data is a very efficient method of representing
musical performance information, and this makes MIDI an attractive protocol not
only for composers or performers, but also for computer applications which
produce sound, such as multimedia presentations or computer games. However, the
lack of standardization of synthesizer capabilities hindered applications
developers and presented new MIDI users with a rather steep learning curve to
overcome.
Fortunately, thanks to the publication of the General MIDI System
specification, wide acceptance of the most common PC/MIDI interfaces, support
for MIDI in Microsoft WINDOWS and other operating systems, and the evolution of
low-cost music synthesizers, the MIDI protocol is now seeing widespread use in a
growing number of applications. This document is an overview of the standards,
practices and terminology associated with the generation of sound using the MIDI
protocol.
