Midi???

[gundam743]

Excuse me for being horribly uneducated, but could someone explain to me what MIDI is, exactly? I know it has to do with music, but beyond that...

[Sephiroth]

ok, yar be in luck, i studed MIDI among other things at college and university, MIDI is a series of serially transmitted messages, that are recognised by specific chips/devices (soundcards, synths etc.) that do different things, basic MIDI messages are note on/note off which makes the MIDI device play a certain note (C3 for example), others do stuff like pitch shifting the MIDI generated note, and a host of other things, it is most commonly used for Synthesisers, or in musical computer programs (to generate MIDI or be controlled by a MIDI controller keyboard), umm, i'm not that brilliant at explaining stuff so generally, any more questions fire away, i hope i've not made it more confusing (its generally used for music, but not as good quality as normal audio)

[Saint Kevin]

MIDI is Music Input Digital Interface (or some such acronym). A midi file tracks 3 components (that are usually input by a midi keyboard, but can be input with a mouse through the use of some programs).

These 3 components are:
Pitch - the actual note (i.e. C3)
Intensity - how loud to play the note
duration - how long to play the note

Midi files can be used to facilitate composition, as a stand-alone file to share your musical creation, or even for educational purposes. With the proper soundfonts (that is, instrument samples) you can create music on the computer that is actually quite good.

Hope I answered your question.
Man I want a midi keyboard...

[Mithrandir]

Man I want a midi keyboard...

*looks at MIDI keyboard*

[gundam743]

Thanx! I think I get it now (maybe...)

[Kaligraphic]

Okay, this is a little confusing because there are actually two parts (well, three) of MIDI - there's an interface used to make musical devices (electronic keyboards, electronic drum sets, and all those nifty gadgets) from different manufacturers work together. Many computer systems have midi interfaces that use the otherwise unused pins of the game port - so you would buy a y-cable to separate out midi from joystick.

There's also the actual signalling protocol used over that interface, which tracks what is being played, as described previously. And finally, there is the file format, which basically stores the signalling protocol so that it can be played back later. Midi files typically contain multiple tracks for different instruments. There's a web site called "contemplations from the marianas trench" with lots of folk songs in midi format. (The site had a really obvious url, but I forget what it was - I'm sure google will know.)

You can find plenty of freeware/shareware/cheap midi composer programs, which let you create midi files basically like writing music. (it can also be easy to make midi files from existing sheet music.) In fact, some of the earliest PC sound cards basically only had midi capability.