What is MIDI?

There are many common MIDI keyboards and MIDI controllers in the market, but do you know what MIDI is?

In fact, MIDI is a digital command consisting of numbers 1 and 0. A command will include different control signals, such as pitch, velocity, note length and so on. A complete MIDI music only needs dozens of KB and can already contain dozens of audio tracks, so it has become the most common language among music devices. The instruments that MIDI can record are all-encompassing, whether it is rhythmic drums or melodic strings, all of them can be recorded.

The history of MIDI originated from forty years ago, when musicians could not play different instruments at the same time, because at that time there was no connection between equipment and equipment, and it was difficult to synchronize. Therefore, synthesizer manufacturer Dave Smith persuaded record manufacturers to adopt a common format called "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" (MIDI), which enables synthesizers to be controlled by external keyboard signals, with the advantage of a small footprint. At the time, the computing speed of the computer was fast enough to process note information, and it could control multiple keyboards and drum machines at the same time.

At that time, people connected drum machines and keyboards to computers, and gradually developed to record and make music at home, which made music production popular, and MIDI became the standard configuration of synthesizer and drum machine production. It is still popular today.