Understanding midi-files

MIDI means Musical Instrument Device Interface.

On the first hearing it is possible to form the opinion that midi-files are uninteresting as the quality is mediocre. It might be true; however it depends on the possibility of listening to the midi-files with excellent quality thanks to modern technology.

Midi-files contain only the instructions for an electronic musical instrument. A midi is, in practice, a score. The instruction is, for example: "Quietly play for two seconds and use the piano." That instruction is immediately transferred to a sound card. If your sound card is standard, the sound will also be standard.

A method of considerably increasing the listening quality of midi-files is to use a software named SurReal by Software Seer music, with the dedicated sound fonts. With good configuration material, such as recent computer, sound cards, and enclosures of good quality, I challenge anyone to tell the difference between a midi-file for piano and a MP3.

Midi-files also have the following advantages:

1) They are light on telephone bills, and are generally free of rights;

2) If one person possesses a sequencer, they are able to view and print the score;

3) Thanks to sequencers, it is possible to create sound files of recordings which do not exist, or to reconstruct works. There are a number of researches and composers using midi-files.

Midi-files are not the best, but neither are they worse than MP3 files,
they are simply different.

Armando and Dominique