The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI for short) was first specified in 1983, principally as a means of interconnecting electronic musical instruments such as electronic keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines. It is a sort of electronic equivalent to the mechanical piano roll, but a lot more sophisticated!

A piano roll does not actually record the sound of the piano, but rather it captures data about which piano keys were hit, in what order, and how hard (= how loud). The data is punched as holes onto a roll of paper tape.   MIDI is the same in principal, except that the data is transmitted or stored as a series of digital numbers and codes down an electrical wire. 

With the computer and sound module technology available today, it is possible to create a very realistic synthesis of musical instrument sounds, controlled by a stream of MIDI signals. Whilst keyboard sounds, especially the piano, are excellent, as are guitar and drum sounds, even violins, woodwinds and brass can sound realistic with a quality set-up.

Musical Discovery employs the MIDI system to play music.  It uses the GM or General Midi standard, which specifies 128 different note sounds or timbres.  The music is stored as tables in a Microsoft Access database, catalogued by composer, category, ensemble, solo instrument, style/period, and country. When a button is clicked to play a tune, the Musical Discovery engine  converts the data for the selected tune, into a MIDI stream of computer bits and bytes, which is sent to the sound card.  The sounds are generated by the sound card in your computer, or by an external sound module connected to your computer.  The quality of the sound will depend on the quality of your sound card or module, and on the quality of your amplification and speaker set-up. Musical Discovery does not incorporate live digital recordings, such as those on a CD.

Copyright © 2002-2007  Victor Gomersall.       All rights reserved