In the early 1980s, there was no standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments manufactured … See more

MIDI was invented so that electronic or digital musical instruments could communicate with each other and so that one instrument can control another. For example, a MIDI-compatible sequencer can trigger beat… See more

Per the original MIDI 1.0 standard, cables terminate in a 180° five-pin DIN connector (DIN 41524). Typical applications use only three of the five conductors: a ground wire (pin 2), and a balanced pair of conductors (pins 4 an… See more

MIDI messages are made up of 8-bit bytes transmitted at 31,250 (±1%) baud using 8-N-1 asynchronous serial communication as described in the figure. The first bit of each byte identifies whether the byte is a status byte or a d… See more

MIDI's flexibility and widespread adoption have led to many refinements of the standard, and have enabled its application to purposes beyond those for which it was originally intended.
MIDI allow… See more

In addition to using a 31.25 kbit/s current-loop over a 5-pin DIN or TRS, the same data can be transmitted over different hardware transports, like USB, IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire), and Ethernet.
Members o… See more