MIDI Files

After reading the Online Journalism book, I found some cool information on MIDI files. I knew how they sounded, after listening to them for marching band in high school and later, but I never really knew what they were. Here are some helpful details on MIDI files from Online Journalism, Principles and Practices of News for the Web:

"A final audio format worth noting is musical instrument digital interface (MIDI). Originally designed for computer control of electronic instruments such as synthesizers and drum machines, MIDI can also be used to play music in HTML. Rather than storing actual sounds, MIDI stores information about note pitch, duration and other characteristics that an instrument can then play."

Have you ever heard a MIDI file? I was introduced to them in high school, when my band director gave us MIDI files to listen to of our marching show. Electronic and almost annoying, the sounds were not of great quality. What it provided, however, was the opportunity to hear all of the different parts at the same time. Then, music in hand, one could listen to how their own part fit into the big picture.

After having read the aforementioned paragraph, I was amazed that the files do not store sounds. Instead, they hold information about which pitches play at what time and for how long. It doesn't make for a very moving recording, but the idea that the file can interpret the musical information and spit out a song is pretty cool.