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Palmyra Atoll | Political status | L. 86–624, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 411). The issue of governance is generally a moot point since no permanent population lives there. Cooper Island and ten other land parcels in this atoll are owned by The Nature Conservancy, Inc., which manages them as a nature reserve. The southwesternmost islets, including Home, are owned by descendants of former Palmyra owner Henry Ernest Cooper and others. The rest of Palmyra is federal land and waters under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since Palmyra has no state or local government, it is administered directly from Honolulu by the U.S. | wiki:25699501 |
Palmyra Atoll | Political status | Fish and Wildlife Service, except for some submerged tracts administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, both in the U.S. Department of the Interior. For all other purposes, Palmyra is counted as one of the U.S. minor outlying islands. They are outside of the customs territory of the United States and have no customs duties. | wiki:25699502 |
Palmyra Atoll | Economy | The only current economic activity on Palmyra is paid ecotourism visits by TNC donors. Most of the roads and causeways there were built during World War II. All of these are now unserviceable and overgrown, and most have washed-away gaps. A -long unpaved airstrip on Cooper Island (Palmyra (Cooper) Airport, ICAO code PLPA) was built for the Palmyra Island Naval Air Station before and during World War II. A construction program in 2004 erected several two-person bungalows and showers for the temporary residents. Fresh water is collected from the roof of a concrete building in this area. The communal buildings of the area on the southwestern coast of Cooper Island (the only occupied area of the atoll) consist of about half a dozen buildings next to the only sea dock. | wiki:25699503 |
Palmyra Atoll | Airport | Palmyra (Cooper) Airport is an unattended airport on Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is a private-use facility, originally built during World War II and now owned by The Nature Conservancy. It has one runway (6/24) measuring . When built the airport was called Palmyra Atoll Airfield, and later Palmyra Island Naval Air Station as it was a former Naval airfield on the Palmyra Atoll in the Line Islands of the Central Pacific Area. The name for the airport comes from Henry Ernest Cooper, Sr. (1857–1929) who owned Palmyra from 1911 to 1922. Preliminary surveys were made by the U.S. | wiki:25699504 |
Palmyra Atoll | Airport | Navy in 1938 for an airfield at this location. The first Navy group to begin construction sailed from Honolulu on November 14, 1939. The runway was made from crushed coral and expanded during World War II. During the war, the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion dredged a channel during World War II so that ships could enter the protected lagoons and bulldozed coral rubble into a long, unpaved landing strip for refueling transpacific supply planes at the airbase. Jan.16, 1942 six Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress from Hawaii were stationed at airbase, Commanded by Lt. Col. Walter C. Sweeney Jr. as part of Hawaiian Air Force's Task Group 8. | wiki:25699505 |
Palmyra Atoll | Airport | Marine Corps VMF-211 pilots also used the airfield. During World War II two other runways were built and used, one on Mengle island and one on Sand Island. Both of these runways are now overgrown with plants and returning to jungle. The U.S. Air Force maintained the main airfield until 1961. The airstrip still exists today but can only be used after prior permission has been obtained or in case of emergency. | wiki:25699506 |
Palmyra Atoll | Discovery | The first known sighting of Palmyra came in 1798 aboard the American sealing ship "Betsy", on a voyage to Asia, according to the memoir of Captain Edmund Fanning of Stonington, Connecticut. Fanning wrote that he had awakened three times during the night before, and after the third time took it as a premonition, ordering "Betsy" to heave to for the rest of the night. The next morning, "Betsy" resumed sailing, but only about a nautical mile further on, he believed that he sighted the reef later known as Palmyra Island. Had the ship continued on her course at night, it might have been wrecked. | wiki:25699507 |
Palmyra Atoll | Discovery | Captain Fanning's claim to have discovered Palmyra itself has been challenged, on the view that he had only reached Kingman Reef away and could not possibly have seen Palmyra from that distance. On page 3, the Baltimore newspaper "The Telegraphe and Daily Advertiser" of July 29, 1803, appears to quote directly from Fanning’s journal: ""We supposed that we saw land from the masthead to the southward of the shoal" (Kingman Reef) "but it was so hazy we were not certain."" This would stand in conflict with Fanning's book of 1833, in which he, while referring to Kingman Reef, wrote ""I went aloft, and with the aid of the glass could plainly see the land over it, far in the south."" On November 7, 1802, the ship "Palmyra", under Captain Cornelius Sawle, was shipwrecked on the reef, which took the vessel's name. | wiki:25699508 |
Palmyra Atoll | Discovery | Lacking a navigable boat passage through the reef from the sea, it had never been inhabited. No marae, basalt artifacts or evidence of Polynesian, Micronesian or other pre-European native settlements before 1802 have been found on Palmyra. Captain Sawle wrote: There are no inhabitants on the island, nor was any fresh water found; but cocoanuts of a very large size, are in great abundance; and fish of various kinds and in large shoals surround the land. | wiki:25699509 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Esperanza" treasure | During the 19th and 20th centuries, stories circulated in the Pacific of a large treasure of gold, silver and precious stones (sometimes described as Inca treasures) that had been looted in the Viceroyalty of Peru. A crew loaded it in secret onto the ship "Esperanza" in Callao harbor, Peru, and embarked into the Pacific Ocean on January 1, 1816, bound for the Spanish West Indies. According to a survivor, seaman James Hines, the "Esperanza" was caught in a storm that dismasted and damaged the ship, after which it was attacked and boarded by pirates, who loaded the treasure and surviving crew onto their own ship. | wiki:25699510 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Esperanza" treasure | The "Esperanza" sank, and the pirates and their captives sailed west across the Pacific bound for Macao. After 43 days, the pirates' ship met a storm, lost course, and struck the coral reef surrounding Palmyra Island, breaking the mast. The 90 men aboard were able to pull the ship closer to land, but it was not serviceable. They offloaded the treasure to the island, distributed some, and buried the rest. They repaired part of their boat and most of the crew shipped away, not to be heard from again. The remaining ten men spent most of a year on Palmyra living on dwindling stores and local food. | wiki:25699511 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Esperanza" treasure | They spent three months building a small escape boat, upon which six men left Palmyra. Of these, four were washed overboard in a storm and the other two were rescued by an American whaler bound for San Francisco. One died en route. The survivor, James Hines, was put in a hospital, but he died 30 days later. | wiki:25699512 |
Palmyra Atoll | American visits | The atoll was visited by the USS "Porpoise" in 1842 as part of the United States Exploring Expedition, led by Charles Wilkes. This marked the first visit to Palmyra by a scientific expedition. Various live samples of native plants and animals were collected. In his 23rd volume recording the findings of the USXX, Wilkes wrote of Palmyra: This island is inhabited ... It is to be regretted that all these detached islands should not be visited by our national vessels, and friendly intercourse kept up with them. The benefit and assistance that any shipwrecked mariners might derive from their rude inhabitants, would repay the time, trouble, and expense such visits would occasion. | wiki:25699513 |
Palmyra Atoll | American visits | In 1859, Palmyra Atoll was claimed for the United States by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd of the brig "Josephine", in accordance with the Guano Islands Act of 1856, but no guano was there to be mined. | wiki:25699514 |
Palmyra Atoll | Annexation by the Kingdom of Hawaii (1862) | On February 26, 1862, King Kamehameha IV of Hawaii commissioned Captain Zenas Bent and Johnson Beswick Wilkinson, both Hawaiian citizens, to take possession of the atoll. On April 15, 1862, it was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Hawaii, while Bent and Wilkinson became joint owners. Over the next century, ownership passed through various hands. Bent sold his rights to Wilkinson on December 25, 1862. Palmyra later passed to Kalama Wilkinson (Johnson's widow). In 1885, it was divided among her four heirs, two of whom sold their rights to William Luther Wilcox who, in turn, sold them to the Pacific Navigation Company. | wiki:25699515 |
Palmyra Atoll | Annexation by the Kingdom of Hawaii (1862) | In 1897, this company was liquidated, and its interests were sold first to William Ansel Kinney, and then to Fred Wundenberg, all of Honolulu. On June 12, 1911, Wundenberg's widow sold his two-thirds undivided interest in Palmyra as a tenant in common to Judge Henry Ernest Cooper (1857–1929). A further Wilkinson heir left her share to her son William Ringer, Sr., who also bought his great-uncle's share, giving Ringer a one-third undivided share as a tenant in common. | wiki:25699516 |
Palmyra Atoll | Part of the U.S. Territory of Hawaii (1900–1959) | In 1898, the United States by the Newlands Resolution annexed the Republic of Hawaii, formerly the Polynesian Kingdom of Hawaii, and Palmyra with it. An Act of Congress made all of Hawaii, including Palmyra, into an "incorporated territory" of the United States at that time. ("Act" of April 30, 1900, ch. 339, §§ 4–5.) On June 14, 1900, Palmyra became part of the new U.S. Territory of Hawaii. To end all British claims, Congress passed a second act of annexation in 1911. With imminent opening of the Panama Canal, Palmyra became strategically important. Britain had established a submarine cable station for the All Red Line on nearby Fanning Island. | wiki:25699517 |
Palmyra Atoll | Part of the U.S. Territory of Hawaii (1900–1959) | The U.S. Navy sent to Palmyra, where on February 21, 1912, American sovereignty was formally reaffirmed. William Ringer, Sr. died in 1909, survived by his wife and three minor daughters. In 1912, Henry Ernest Cooper bought the daughters' inherited rights from their legal guardian and petitioned to register Torrens title to all of Palmyra for himself but, after a challenge in court, Cooper's ownership of the atoll was held by the Supreme Court of Hawaii to be subject to rights sold by Ringer's widow to Henry Maui and Joseph Clarke. Maui's and Clarke's interests, noted by the US Supreme Court in 1947, were divided one-third to Bella Jones of Honolulu in 1912 and the rest passed to their heirs. | wiki:25699518 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Navy occupation (1939–1959) | A number of memoirs, reports and unofficial documents in the decades since World War II, have stated Palmyra was placed under naval jurisdiction in 1934, as part of Executive Order 6935. However, Palmyra is not mentioned in this order, in any capacity. The first official mention of Palmyra under Naval Jurisdiction comes from a 1939 letter from the US Attorney General, mentioned in a 1997 Insular Areas report, concluding "Palmyra was U.S. public land and that the Fullard-Leo claim was invalid. S. Rep. No. 83-886 at 37." Soon after this determination, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8616, officially, "Placing Palmyra Island, Territory of Hawaii, Under the Control and Jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Navy". | wiki:25699519 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Navy occupation (1939–1959) | Starting back in 1937, the Fullard-Leo family began attempts to lease Palmyra to the U.S. Navy. During negotiations, the government filed a quiet title action against the Fullard-Leos and Henry Ernest Cooper's six surviving children, claiming property at Palmyra had never been privately owned under the Kingdom of Hawaii or later. The case reached the US Supreme Court. The Insular Areas report goes on to state, "While the suit was pending during World War II, the Navy occupied Palmyra and built a runway and several buildings." The Fullard-Leos and Coopers finally won their case in "United States v. Fullard-Leo et al.", 331 U.S. | wiki:25699520 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Navy occupation (1939–1959) | 256 (1947), which quieted good land title against the federal government in favor of private landowners. The opinion acknowledged certain of Henry Maui's and Joseph Clarke's interests (331 U.S. 256 at 278) but their heirs and their successor Mrs. Bella Jones were not made parties to the case., descendants of Henry Cooper still owned two small Home islets in the southwestern tip that were not sold in 1922. In July 1938, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, imploring him not to turn Palmyra over to the US Navy for use as a military base. | wiki:25699521 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Navy occupation (1939–1959) | Quoting his letter, he writes, | wiki:25699522 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Territory of Palmyra Atoll (1959–present) | When Hawaii was admitted to the United States in 1959, Palmyra was explicitly separated from the new state, remaining a federal incorporated territory, to be administered by the secretary of the interior under a presidential executive order. In 1962, the Department of Defense used Palmyra as an observation site during several high-altitude nuclear weapons tests high above Johnston Atoll. A group of about ten men supported the observation posts during this series of tests, while about 40 people carried out the observations. In early 1979, the US government began exploring the idea of storing nuclear waste on remote Pacific islands, like Palmyra. | wiki:25699523 |
Palmyra Atoll | U.S. Territory of Palmyra Atoll (1959–present) | Those who knew the island and the region saw no benefit to this idea, commenting on the devastating effects a leak of these storage tanks would create. By 1982 a formal proposal had been written which "analyzes the proposal to store spent nuclear fuel on Palmyra Island, a US territory nearly a thousand miles south of Hawaii. The proposal has military, political, social, and technical implications."The idea was abandoned soon after the proposal, and no such storage facilities were built. | wiki:25699524 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Sea Wind" murder | In 1974, Palmyra was the site of a murder, and possible double murder, of a wealthy San Diego couple, Malcolm "Mac" Graham and his wife, Eleanor "Muff" Graham. The mysterious deaths, including the murder conviction of Duane ("Buck") Walker (a.k.a. Wesley G. Walker) for Eleanor Graham's murder, and the acquittal of his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, made headlines worldwide, and became the subject of a true crime book, "And the Sea Will Tell", written by Bruce Henderson and Vincent Bugliosi, Stearns's defense attorney. The book led to a CBS television miniseries of the same name, starring James Brolin, Rachel Ward, Deidre Hall, and Hart Bochner; Richard Crenna played lawyer Bugliosi. | wiki:25699525 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Sea Wind" murder | The story was retold in "The FBI Files". Walker and Stearns were arrested in Honolulu in 1974 after returning from Palmyra aboard "Sea Wind", the yacht stolen from the Grahams. Because no bodies were found at the time, Walker and Stearns were convicted only for the theft of the yacht. Six years later, a partially-buried, corroded chest was found in a lagoon at Palmyra, containing Eleanor Graham's remains. Walker and Stearns were arrested in Arizona for murder, and Walker was convicted in 1985. Stearns was acquitted in 1986 after her defense argued that Walker had committed the murders without Stearns's knowledge. | wiki:25699526 |
Palmyra Atoll | "Sea Wind" murder | Because no body or other evidence of Malcolm Graham's death has been discovered, his murder was never formally alleged. Walker served 22 years in the United States Penitentiary, Victorville, California before receiving parole in 2007. He wrote an 895-page book about his experiences, and life on Palmyra Island, in which he denied killing Eleanor Graham. It states they had sexual relations, her husband Malcolm Graham caught them and shot at them in anger, inadvertently killing her. The two men had a gunfight the next day, and Malcolm Graham consequently died from a rifle wound. | wiki:25699527 |
Palmyra Atoll | Sovereignty challenges (1997–1999) | In the late 1990s, Rachel Lahela Kekoa Bolt, a native Hawaiian heir of Henry Maui, and some of her descendants filed federal lawsuits claiming her inherited interest in Palmyra and challenging the legality of the Newlands Resolution that annexed Hawaii. The lawsuits challenged American sovereignty over both the State of Hawaii and the United States Territory of Palmyra Island. On similar grounds they intervened in a federal marine salvage claim for a sunken treasure ship at Palmyra. The cases were dismissed on procedural grounds before trial. | wiki:25699528 |
Palmyra Atoll | National Wildlife Refuge and National Monument | In December 2000, The Nature Conservancy bought most of Palmyra Atoll from the three Fullard-Leo brothers for coral reef conservation and research. In 2003, a scientific study was published about fossilized coral that was washing up on Palmyra. This fossilized coral was examined for evidence of the behavior of the effect of El Niño on the tropical Pacific Ocean over the past 1,000 years. On January 18, 2001, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton signed an order designating Palmyra's tidal lands, submerged lands and surrounding waters out to from the water's edge as a National Wildlife Refuge. Subsequently, the Department of the Interior published a regulation providing for the management of the refuge. | wiki:25699529 |
Palmyra Atoll | National Wildlife Refuge and National Monument | 66 Fed. Reg. 7660-01 (January 24, 2001). The pertinent part of the regulation states: We will close the refuge to commercial fishing but will permit a low level of compatible recreational fishing for bonefishing and deep water sportfishing under programs that we will carefully manage to ensure compatibility with refuge purposes. ... Management actions will include protection of the refuge waters and wildlife from commercial fishing activities. In March 2003, TNC conveyed of the emergent land of Palmyra to the United States to be included in the refuge. In 2005, it added 28 acres to the conveyance. The Nature Conservancy and Henry Ernest Cooper's descendants kept their remaining private land tracts. | wiki:25699530 |
Palmyra Atoll | National Wildlife Refuge and National Monument | The conveyance to The Nature Conservancy, Inc. from the Fullard-Leos in 2000 was subject to a preexisting commercial fishing licence. Then in 2001 the Secretary of the Interior banned commercial fishing near Palmyra but allowed sport fishing, as quoted above. In January 2007, the commercial fishing licensees sued the United States in the Court of Federal Claims alleging that, under the Takings Clause, the Interior Department regulation had "directly confiscated, taken, and rendered wholly and completely worthless" their purported property interests. The United States filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and the court granted the motion. On April 9, 2009, the court's decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. | wiki:25699531 |
Palmyra Atoll | Conservation and restoration | In 2011, Fish and Wildlife Service, TNC and Island Conservation began an extensive program to eradicate the horde of non-native rats that had arrived on Palmyra during World War II. As many as 30,000 rats once roamed the atoll, eating the eggs of native seabirds and destroying the seedlings of one of the largest remaining Pacific stands of "pisonia grandis" trees. The rats were eliminated in 2012; however, fifty-one animal samples representing 15 species of birds, fish, reptiles and invertebrates were collected for residue analysis during systematic searches or as nontarget mortalities. Brodifacoum residues (the toxicant employed during the project) were detected in most (84.3%) of the samples analyzed with unknown long-term and sublethal effects. | wiki:25699532 |
Palmyra Atoll | Conservation and restoration | One side effect was the demise of the island's population of Asian tiger mosquitoes. This was claimed to be the first time that killing off one unwanted species resulted in the removal of a second unwanted species. The other mosquito species on the island, "Culex quinquefasciatus," was not eliminated. Post-rat-eradication monitoring documented a notable recruitment event for "pisonia grandis", a dominant tree species that is important throughout the Pacific region. However, by five years post-eradication, a 13-fold increase in recruitment of the range-expanding coconut palm "Cocos nucifera" was found. Beginning in 2019, TNC worked in partnership with Island Conservation and the Fish and Wildlife Service to restore the native rainforest at Palmyra Atoll by removing dominant "C. | wiki:25699533 |
Palmyra Atoll | Conservation and restoration | nucifera" coconut palms, which the conservancy says are the result of former copra plantations and military activity. Other trees provide habitat for 11 seabird species, and the conservancy wrote that their re-establishment across the atoll would encourage coral growth and might lessen the local impact of a rise in sea-level. As of December 2019, half a million coconut sprouts had been removed, and tracking begun of the ecosystem's response. Palmyra Atoll's location in the Pacific Ocean, where the southern and northern currents meet, litters its beaches with trash and debris. Plastic mooring buoys and plastic bottles are plentiful. | wiki:25699534 |
Palmyra Atoll | Tourism | Tourists are allowed to visit Palmyra Atoll (unlike most of the U.S. minor outlying islands, which are mostly closed to the public.) However, Palmyra Atoll is hard to get to, and so few visit. Visits must have prior approval. A statement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is as follows: "Public access to Palmyra Atoll is self-limiting due to the very high expense of traveling to such a remote destination. The Nature Conservancy owns and operates the only airplane runway on Palmyra, and by boat it's a 5–7 day sailing trip from Honolulu. There are four ways the public may gain access to the refuge: (1) Working for, contracting with, or volunteering for The Nature Conservancy or Fish and Wildlife Service; (2) Conducting scientific research via Fish and Wildlife Service Special Use Permits; (3) Invitation through The Nature Conservancy sponsored donor trip; (4) Visitation by private recreational sailboat or motorboat." | wiki:25699535 |
Palmyra Atoll | Amateur radio ("DX") visitors | Since the 1940s, Palmyra's most consistent visitors have been members of distance expedition ("DX") teams, as the atoll is a popular spot for these amateur radio operators. To date, more than 25 expeditions have arrived. Once on the islands, the hams broadcast, attempting to reach as many recipients as possible. Each recipient is eligible to receive a QSL card as confirmation of the connection. Former N. California DX Club president Richard Malcolm Crouch became a Palmyra landowner. Visits are typically benign, but occasionally include a bit of drama. For instance, the June 1974 team helped rescue a couple whose ship had run aground on the reefs. | wiki:25699536 |
Palmyra Atoll | Amateur radio ("DX") visitors | The man, Buck Walker, would later be convicted of homicide in the much publicized "Sea Wind" murder case. Two members of the 1980 team were injured severely enough to need an airlift back to Honolulu. The first incident resulted from injuries sustained in a plane crash as their pilot underestimated wind conditions and the poor state of the landing strip. The second injury, to a surgeon, happened when he fell and cut his hands on broken glass. The surgeon then sued the atoll's owners, as he was no longer able to practice surgery, and the atoll was closed to visitors for most of the 1980s while cleanup activities were undertaken. | wiki:25699537 |
MIDI | Introduction | MIDI (; an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. The specification originates in a paper published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood then of Sequential Circuits at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City then titled "Universal Synthesizer Interface." A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument. | wiki:25699538 |
MIDI | Introduction | This could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example. MIDI carries event messages; data that specify the instructions for music, including a note's notation, pitch, velocity (which is heard typically as loudness or softness of volume); vibrato; panning to the right or left of stereo; and clock signals (which set tempo). When a musician plays a MIDI instrument, all of the key presses, button presses, knob turns and slider changes are converted into MIDI data. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. | wiki:25699539 |
MIDI | Introduction | MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back. A file format that stores and exchanges the data is also defined. Advantages of MIDI include small file size, ease of modification and manipulation and a wide choice of electronic instruments and synthesizer or digitally-sampled sounds. A MIDI recording of a performance on a keyboard could sound like a piano or other keyboard instrument; however, since MIDI records the messages and information about their notes and not the specific sounds, this recording could be changed to many other sounds, ranging from synthesized or sampled guitar or flute to full orchestra. | wiki:25699540 |
MIDI | Introduction | A MIDI recording is not an audio signal, as with a sound recording made with a microphone. | wiki:25699541 |
MIDI | History | In the early 1980s, there was no standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments manufactured by different companies. Manufacturers had their own proprietary standards to synchronize instruments, such as CV/gate and Digital Control Bus (DCB). Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi felt the lack of standardization was limiting the growth of the electronic music industry. In June 1981, he proposed developing a standard to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim, who had developed his own proprietary interface, the Oberheim System. Kakehashi felt the Oberheim System was too cumbersome, and spoke to Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith about creating a simpler, cheaper alternative. While Smith discussed the concept with American companies, Kakehashi discussed it with Japanese companies Yamaha, Korg and Kawai. | wiki:25699542 |
MIDI | History | Representatives from all companies met to discuss the idea in October. Initially, only Sequential Circuits and the Japanese companies were interested.Using Roland's DCB as a basis, Smith and Sequential Circuits engineer Chet Wood devised a universal interface to allow communication between equipment from different manufacturers. Smith and Wood proposed this standard in a paper, "Universal Synthesizer Interface," at the Audio Engineering Society show in October 1981. The standard was discussed and modified by representatives of Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kawai, and Sequential Circuits. Kakehashi favored the name Universal Musical Interface (UMI), pronounced "you-me", but Smith felt this was "a little corny". | wiki:25699543 |
MIDI | History | However, he liked the use of "instrument" instead of "synthesizer", and proposed the name Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). Moog Music founder Robert Moog announced MIDI in the October 1982 issue of "Keyboard". At the 1983 Winter NAMM Show, Smith demonstrated a MIDI connection between Prophet 600 and Roland JP-6 synthesizers. The MIDI specification was published in August 1983. The MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith, who received Technical Grammy Awards in 2013 for their work. In 1982, the first instruments were released with MIDI, the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Prophet 600. In 1983, the first MIDI drum machine, the Roland TR-909, and the first MIDI sequencer, the Roland MSQ-700 were released. | wiki:25699544 |
MIDI | History | The first computer to support MIDI, the NEC PC-88 and PC-98, was released in 1982. | wiki:25699545 |
MIDI | Impact | MIDI's appeal was originally limited to professional musicians and record producers who wanted to use electronic instruments in the production of popular music. The standard allowed different instruments to communicate with each other and with computers, and this spurred a rapid expansion of the sales and production of electronic instruments and music software. This interoperability allowed one device to be controlled from another, which reduced the amount of hardware musicians needed. MIDI's introduction coincided with the dawn of the personal computer era and the introduction of samplers and digital synthesizers. The creative possibilities brought about by MIDI technology are credited for helping revive the music industry in the 1980s. | wiki:25699546 |
MIDI | Impact | MIDI introduced capabilities that transformed the way many musicians work. MIDI sequencing makes it possible for a user with no notation skills to build complex arrangements. A musical act with as few as one or two members, each operating multiple MIDI-enabled devices, can deliver a performance similar to that of a larger group of musicians. The expense of hiring outside musicians for a project can be reduced or eliminated, and complex productions can be realized on a system as small as a synthesizer with integrated keyboard and sequencer. MIDI also helped establish home recording. By performing preproduction in a home environment, an artist can reduce recording costs by arriving at a recording studio with a partially completed song. | wiki:25699547 |
MIDI | Instrument control | 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 beats produced by a drum sound module. Analog synthesizers that have no digital component and were built prior to MIDI's development can be retrofit with kits that convert MIDI messages into analog control voltages. When a note is played on a MIDI instrument, it generates a digital MIDI message that can be used to trigger a note on another instrument. The capability for remote control allows full-sized instruments to be replaced with smaller sound modules, and allows musicians to combine instruments to achieve a fuller sound, or to create combinations of synthesized instrument sounds, such as acoustic piano and strings. | wiki:25699548 |
MIDI | Instrument control | MIDI also enables other instrument parameters (volume, effects, etc.) to be controlled remotely. Synthesizers and samplers contain various tools for shaping an electronic or digital sound. Filters adjust timbre, and envelopes automate the way a sound evolves over time after a note is triggered. The frequency of a filter and the envelope attack (the time it takes for a sound to reach its maximum level), are examples of synthesizer parameters, and can be controlled remotely through MIDI. Effects devices have different parameters, such as delay feedback or reverb time. When a MIDI continuous controller number (CCN) is assigned to one of these parameters, the device responds to any messages it receives that are identified by that number. | wiki:25699549 |
MIDI | Instrument control | Controls such as knobs, switches, and pedals can be used to send these messages. A set of adjusted parameters can be saved to a device's internal memory as a "patch", and these patches can be remotely selected by MIDI program changes. | wiki:25699550 |
MIDI | Composition | MIDI events can be sequenced with computer software, or in specialized hardware music workstations. Many digital audio workstations (DAWs) are specifically designed to work with MIDI as an integral component. MIDI piano rolls have been developed in many DAWs so that the recorded MIDI messages can be easily modified. These tools allow composers to audition and edit their work much more quickly and efficiently than did older solutions, such as multitrack recording. Because MIDI is a set of commands that create sound, MIDI sequences can be manipulated in ways that prerecorded audio cannot. It is possible to change the key, instrumentation or tempo of a MIDI arrangement, and to reorder its individual sections. | wiki:25699551 |
MIDI | Composition | The ability to compose ideas and quickly hear them played back enables composers to experiment. Algorithmic composition programs provide computer-generated performances that can be used as song ideas or accompaniment. Some composers may take advantage of standard, portable set of commands and parameters in MIDI 1.0 and General MIDI (GM) to share musical data files among various electronic instruments. The data composed via the sequenced MIDI recordings can be saved as a "standard MIDI file" (SMF), digitally distributed, and reproduced by any computer or electronic instrument that also adheres to the same MIDI, GM, and SMF standards. MIDI data files are much smaller than corresponding recorded audio files. | wiki:25699552 |
MIDI | Use with computers | The personal computer market stabilized at the same time that MIDI appeared, and computers became a viable option for music production. In 1983 computers started to play a role in mainstream music production. In the years immediately after the 1983 ratification of the MIDI specification, MIDI features were adapted to several early computer platforms. NEC's PC-88 and PC-98 began supporting MIDI as early as 1982. The Yamaha CX5M introduced MIDI support and sequencing in an MSX system in 1984. The spread of MIDI on personal computers was largely facilitated by Roland Corporation's MPU-401, released in 1984, as the first MIDI-equipped PC sound card, capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing. | wiki:25699553 |
MIDI | Use with computers | After Roland sold MPU sound chips to other sound card manufacturers, it established a universal standard MIDI-to-PC interface. The widespread adoption of MIDI led to computer-based MIDI software being developed. Soon after, a number of platforms began supporting MIDI, including the Apple II Plus, IIe and Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amiga, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, and PC DOS. The Macintosh was a favourite among US musicians, as it was marketed at a competitive price, and it took several years for PC systems to catch up with its efficiency and graphical interface. The Atari ST was preferred in Europe, where Macintoshes were more expensive. | wiki:25699554 |
MIDI | Use with computers | The Atari ST had the advantage of MIDI ports that were built directly into the computer. Most music software in MIDI's first decade was published for either the Apple or the Atari. By the time of Windows 3.0's 1990 release, PCs had caught up in processing power and had acquired a graphical interface and software titles began to see release on multiple platforms. | wiki:25699555 |
MIDI | Standard files | The Standard MIDI File (SMF) is a file format that provides a standardized way for music sequences to be saved, transported, and opened in other systems. The standard was developed and is maintained by the MMA, and usually uses a codice_1 extension. The compact size of these files led to their widespread use in computers, mobile phone ringtones, webpage authoring and musical greeting cards. These files are intended for universal use and include such information as note values, timing and track names. Lyrics may be included as metadata, and can be displayed by karaoke machines. SMFs are created as an export format of software sequencers or hardware workstations. | wiki:25699556 |
MIDI | Standard files | They organize MIDI messages into one or more parallel tracks and timestamp the events so that they can be played back in sequence. A header contains the arrangement's track count, tempo and an indicator of which of three SMF formats the file uses. A type 0 file contains the entire performance, merged onto a single track, while type 1 files may contain any number of tracks that are performed in synchrony. Type 2 files are rarely used and store multiple arrangements, with each arrangement having its own track and intended to be played in sequence. Microsoft Windows bundles SMFs together with Downloadable Sounds (DLS) in a Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) wrapper, as "RMID" files with a codice_2 extension. | wiki:25699557 |
MIDI | Standard files | RIFF-RMID has been deprecated in favor of Extensible Music Files (XMF). | wiki:25699558 |
MIDI | Software | The main advantage of the personal computer in a MIDI system is that it can serve a number of different purposes, depending on the software that is loaded. Multitasking allows simultaneous operation of programs that may be able to share data with each other. | wiki:25699559 |
MIDI | Sequencers | Sequencing software provides a number of benefits to a composer or arranger. It allows recorded MIDI to be manipulated using standard computer editing features such as cut, copy and paste and drag and drop. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to streamline workflow, and editing functions are often selectable via MIDI commands. The sequencer allows each channel to be set to play a different sound, and gives a graphical overview of the arrangement. A variety of editing tools are made available, including a notation display that can be used to create printed parts for musicians. Tools such as looping, quantization, randomization, and transposition simplify the arranging process. | wiki:25699560 |
MIDI | Sequencers | Beat creation is simplified, and groove templates can be used to duplicate another track's rhythmic feel. Realistic expression can be added through the manipulation of real-time controllers. Mixing can be performed, and MIDI can be synchronized with recorded audio and video tracks. Work can be saved, and transported between different computers or studios. Sequencers may take alternate forms, such as drum pattern editors that allow users to create beats by clicking on pattern grids, and loop sequencers such as ACID Pro, which allow MIDI to be combined with prerecorded audio loops whose tempos and keys are matched to each other. | wiki:25699561 |
MIDI | Sequencers | Cue list sequencing is used to trigger dialogue, sound effect, and music cues in stage and broadcast production. | wiki:25699562 |
MIDI | Notation/scoring software | With MIDI, notes played on a keyboard can automatically be transcribed to sheet music. Scorewriting software typically lacks advanced sequencing tools, and is optimized for the creation of a neat, professional printout designed for live instrumentalists. These programs provide support for dynamics and expression markings, chord and lyric display, and complex score styles. Software is available that can print scores in braille. SmartScore software can produce MIDI files from scanned sheet music. Other notation programs include Finale, Encore, Sibelius, MuseScore and Dorico. | wiki:25699563 |
MIDI | Editor/librarians | Patch editors allow users to program their equipment through the computer interface. These became essential with the appearance of complex synthesizers such as the Yamaha FS1R, which contained several thousand programmable parameters, but had an interface that consisted of fifteen tiny buttons, four knobs and a small LCD. Digital instruments typically discourage users from experimentation, due to their lack of the feedback and direct control that switches and knobs would provide, but patch editors give owners of hardware instruments and effects devices the same editing functionality that is available to users of software synthesizers. Some editors are designed for a specific instrument or effects device, while other, "universal" editors support a variety of equipment, and ideally can control the parameters of every device in a setup through the use of System Exclusive commands. | wiki:25699564 |
MIDI | Editor/librarians | Patch librarians have the specialized function of organizing the sounds in a collection of equipment, and allow transmission of entire banks of sounds between an instrument and a computer. This allows the user to augment the device's limited patch storage with a computer's much greater disk capacity, and to share custom patches with other owners of the same instrument. Universal editor/librarians that combine the two functions were once common, and included Opcode Systems' Galaxy and eMagic's SoundDiver. These programs have been largely abandoned with the trend toward computer-based synthesis, although Mark of the Unicorn's (MOTU)'s Unisyn and Sound Quest's Midi Quest remain available. | wiki:25699565 |
MIDI | Editor/librarians | Native Instruments' Kore was an effort to bring the editor/librarian concept into the age of software instruments. | wiki:25699566 |
MIDI | Auto-accompaniment programs | Programs that can dynamically generate accompaniment tracks are called "auto-accompaniment" programs. These create a full band arrangement in a style that the user selects, and send the result to a MIDI sound generating device for playback. The generated tracks can be used as educational or practice tools, as accompaniment for live performances, or as a songwriting aid. | wiki:25699567 |
MIDI | Synthesis and sampling | Computers can use software to generate sounds, which are then passed through a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to a power amplifier and loudspeaker system. The number of sounds that can be played simultaneously (the polyphony) is dependent on the power of the computer's CPU, as are the sample rate and bit depth of playback, which directly affect the quality of the sound. Synthesizers implemented in software are subject to timing issues that are not present with hardware instruments, whose dedicated operating systems are not subject to interruption from background tasks as desktop operating systems are. These timing issues can cause synchronization problems, and clicks and pops when sample playback is interrupted. | wiki:25699568 |
MIDI | Synthesis and sampling | Software synthesizers also exhibit a noticeable delay known as latency in their sound generation, because computers use an audio buffer that delays playback and disrupts MIDI timing. Software synthesis' roots go back as far as the 1950s, when Max Mathews of Bell Labs wrote the MUSIC-N programming language, which was capable of non-real-time sound generation. The first synthesizer to run directly on a host computer's CPU was Reality, by Dave Smith's Seer Systems, which achieved a low latency through tight driver integration, and therefore could run only on Creative Labs soundcards. Some systems use dedicated hardware to reduce the load on the host CPU, as with Symbolic Sound Corporation's Kyma System, and the Creamware/Sonic Core Pulsar/SCOPE systems, which power an entire recording studio's worth of instruments, effect units, and mixers. | wiki:25699569 |
MIDI | Synthesis and sampling | The ability to construct full MIDI arrangements entirely in computer software allows a composer to render a finalized result directly as an audio file. | wiki:25699570 |
MIDI | Game music | Early PC games were distributed on floppy disks, and the small size of MIDI files made them a viable means of providing soundtracks. Games of the DOS and early Windows eras typically required compatibility with either Ad Lib or Sound Blaster audio cards. These cards used FM synthesis, which generates sound through modulation of sine waves. John Chowning, the technique's pioneer, theorized that the technology would be capable of accurate recreation of any sound if enough sine waves were used, but budget computer audio cards performed FM synthesis with only two sine waves. Combined with the cards' 8-bit audio, this resulted in a sound described as "artificial" and "primitive". | wiki:25699571 |
MIDI | Game music | Wavetable daughterboards that were later available provided audio samples that could be used in place of the FM sound. These were expensive, but often used the sounds from respected MIDI instruments such as the E-mu Proteus. The computer industry moved in the mid-1990s toward wavetable-based soundcards with 16-bit playback, but standardized on a 2MB ROM, a space too small in which to fit good-quality samples of 128 instruments plus drum kits. Some manufacturers used 12-bit samples, and padded those to 16 bits. | wiki:25699572 |
MIDI | Other applications | MIDI has been adopted as a control protocol in a number of non-musical applications. MIDI Show Control uses MIDI commands to direct stage lighting systems and to trigger cued events in theatrical productions. VJs and turntablists use it to cue clips, and to synchronize equipment, and recording systems use it for synchronization and automation. Apple Motion allows control of animation parameters through MIDI. The 1987 first-person shooter game "MIDI Maze" and the 1990 Atari ST computer puzzle game "Oxyd" used MIDI to network computers together, and kits are available that allow MIDI control over home lighting and appliances. Despite its association with music devices, MIDI can control any electronic or digital device that can read and process a MIDI command. | wiki:25699573 |
MIDI | Other applications | The receiving device or object would require a General MIDI processor, however in this instance, the program changes would trigger a function on that device rather than notes from a MIDI instrument's controller. Each function can be set to a timer (also controlled by MIDI) or other condition or trigger determined by the device's creator. | wiki:25699574 |
MIDI | Connectors | The cables terminate in a 180° five-pin DIN connector. Standard applications use only three of the five conductors: a ground wire, and a balanced pair of conductors that carry a +5 volt signal. This connector configuration can only carry messages in one direction, so a second cable is necessary for two-way communication. Some proprietary applications, such as phantom-powered footswitch controllers, use the spare pins for direct current (DC) power transmission. Opto-isolators keep MIDI devices electrically separated from their connectors, which prevents the occurrence of ground loops and protects equipment from voltage spikes. There is no error detection capability in MIDI, so the maximum cable length is set at 15 meters (50 feet) to limit interference. | wiki:25699575 |
MIDI | Connectors | Most devices do not copy messages from their input to their output port. A third type of port, the "thru" port, emits a copy of everything received at the input port, allowing data to be forwarded to another instrument in a "daisy chain" arrangement. Not all devices contain thru ports, and devices that lack the ability to generate MIDI data, such as effects units and sound modules, may not include out ports. | wiki:25699576 |
MIDI | Management devices | Each device in a daisy chain adds delay to the system. This is avoided with a MIDI thru box, which contains several outputs that provide an exact copy of the box's input signal. A MIDI merger is able to combine the input from multiple devices into a single stream, and allows multiple controllers to be connected to a single device. A MIDI switcher allows switching between multiple devices, and eliminates the need to physically repatch cables. MIDI patch bays combine all of these functions. They contain multiple inputs and outputs, and allow any combination of input channels to be routed to any combination of output channels. | wiki:25699577 |
MIDI | Management devices | Routing setups can be created using computer software, stored in memory, and selected by MIDI program change commands. This enables the devices to function as standalone MIDI routers in situations where no computer is present. MIDI patch bays also clean up any skewing of MIDI data bits that occurs at the input stage. MIDI data processors are used for utility tasks and special effects. These include MIDI filters, which remove unwanted MIDI data from the stream, and MIDI delays, effects that send a repeated copy of the input data at a set time. | wiki:25699578 |
MIDI | Interfaces | A computer MIDI interface's main function is to match clock speeds between the MIDI device and the computer. Some computer sound cards include a standard MIDI connector, whereas others connect by any of various means that include the D-subminiature DA-15 game port, USB, FireWire, Ethernet or a proprietary connection. The increasing use of USB connectors in the 2000s has led to the availability of MIDI-to-USB data interfaces that can transfer MIDI channels to USB-equipped computers. Some MIDI keyboard controllers are equipped with USB jacks, and can be plugged into computers that run music software. MIDI's serial transmission leads to timing problems. | wiki:25699579 |
MIDI | Interfaces | A three-byte MIDI message requires nearly 1 millisecond for transmission. Because MIDI is serial, it can only send one event at a time. If an event is sent on two channels at once, the event on the second channel cannot transmit until the first one is finished, and so is delayed by 1 ms. If an event is sent on all channels at the same time, the last channel's transmission is delayed by as much as 16 ms. This contributed to the rise of MIDI interfaces with multiple in- and out-ports, because timing improves when events are spread between multiple ports as opposed to multiple channels on the same port. | wiki:25699580 |
MIDI | Interfaces | The term "MIDI slop" refers to audible timing errors that result when MIDI transmission is delayed. | wiki:25699581 |
MIDI | Controllers | There are two types of MIDI controllers: performance controllers that generate notes and are used to perform music, and controllers that may not send notes, but transmit other types of real-time events. Many devices are some combination of the two types. Keyboards are by far the most common type of MIDI controller. MIDI was designed with keyboards in mind, and any controller that is not a keyboard is considered an "alternative" controller. This was seen as a limitation by composers who were not interested in keyboard-based music, but the standard proved flexible, and MIDI compatibility was introduced to other types of controllers, including guitars, stringed and wind instruments, drums and specialized and experimental controllers. | wiki:25699582 |
MIDI | Controllers | Other controllers include drum controllers and wind controllers, which can emulate the playing of drum kit and wind instruments, respectively. Nevertheless, some features of the keyboard playing for which MIDI was designed do not fully capture other instruments' capabilities; Jaron Lanier cites the standard as an example of technological "lock-in" that unexpectedly limited what was possible to express. Some of these features, such as per-note pitch bend, are to be addressed in MIDI 2.0, described below. Software synthesizers offer great power and versatility, but some players feel that division of attention between a MIDI keyboard and a computer keyboard and mouse robs some of the immediacy from the playing experience. | wiki:25699583 |
MIDI | Controllers | Devices dedicated to real-time MIDI control provide an ergonomic benefit, and can provide a greater sense of connection with the instrument than an interface that is accessed through a mouse or a push-button digital menu. Controllers may be general-purpose devices that are designed to work with a variety of equipment, or they may be designed to work with a specific piece of software. Examples of the latter include Akai's APC40 controller for Ableton Live, and Korg's MS-20ic controller that is a reproduction of their MS-20 analog synthesizer. The MS-20ic controller includes patch cables that can be used to control signal routing in their virtual reproduction of the MS-20 synthesizer, and can also control third-party devices. | wiki:25699584 |
MIDI | Instruments | A MIDI instrument contains ports to send and receive MIDI signals, a CPU to process those signals, an interface that allows user programming, audio circuitry to generate sound, and controllers. The operating system and factory sounds are often stored in a Read-only memory (ROM) unit. A MIDI instrument can also be a stand-alone module (without a piano style keyboard) consisting of a General MIDI soundboard (GM, GS and XG), onboard editing, including transposing/pitch changes, MIDI instrument changes and adjusting volume, pan, reverb levels and other MIDI controllers. Typically, the MIDI Module includes a large screen, so the user can view information for the currently selected function. | wiki:25699585 |
MIDI | Instruments | Features can include scrolling lyrics, usually embedded in a MIDI file or karaoke MIDI, playlists, song library and editing screens. Some MIDI Modules include a Harmonizer and the ability to playback and transpose MP3 audio files. | wiki:25699586 |
MIDI | Synthesizers | Synthesizers may employ any of a variety of sound generation techniques. They may include an integrated keyboard, or may exist as "sound modules" or "expanders" that generate sounds when triggered by an external controller, such as a MIDI keyboard. Sound modules are typically designed to be mounted in a 19-inch rack. Manufacturers commonly produce a synthesizer in both standalone and rack-mounted versions, and often offer the keyboard version in a variety of sizes. | wiki:25699587 |
MIDI | Samplers | A sampler can record and digitize audio, store it in random-access memory (RAM), and play it back. Samplers typically allow a user to edit a sample and save it to a hard disk, apply effects to it, and shape it with the same tools that synthesizers use. They also may be available in either keyboard or rack-mounted form. Instruments that generate sounds through sample playback, but have no recording capabilities, are known as "ROMplers". Samplers did not become established as viable MIDI instruments as quickly as synthesizers did, due to the expense of memory and processing power at the time. | wiki:25699588 |
MIDI | Samplers | The first low-cost MIDI sampler was the Ensoniq Mirage, introduced in 1984. MIDI samplers are typically limited by displays that are too small to use to edit sampled waveforms, although some can be connected to a computer monitor. | wiki:25699589 |
MIDI | Drum machines | Drum machines typically are sample playback devices that specialize in drum and percussion sounds. They commonly contain a sequencer that allows the creation of drum patterns, and allows them to be arranged into a song. There often are multiple audio outputs, so that each sound or group of sounds can be routed to a separate output. The individual drum voices may be playable from another MIDI instrument, or from a sequencer. | wiki:25699590 |
MIDI | Workstations and hardware sequencers | Sequencer technology predates MIDI. Analog sequencers use CV/Gate signals to control pre-MIDI analog synthesizers. MIDI sequencers typically are operated by transport features modeled after those of tape decks. They are capable of recording MIDI performances, and arranging them into individual tracks along a multitrack recording concept. Music workstations combine controller keyboards with an internal sound generator and a sequencer. These can be used to build complete arrangements and play them back using their own internal sounds, and function as self-contained music production studios. They commonly include file storage and transfer capabilities. | wiki:25699591 |
MIDI | Effects devices | Some effects units can be remotely controlled via MIDI. For example, the Eventide H3000 Ultra-harmonizer allows such extensive MIDI control that it is playable as a synthesizer. The Drum Buddy, a pedal-format drum machine, has a MIDI connection so that it can have its tempo synchronized with a looper pedal or time-based effects such as delay. | wiki:25699592 |
MIDI | Technical specifications | MIDI messages are made up of 8-bit "words" (commonly called "bytes") that are transmitted serially at a rate of 31.25 kbit/s. This rate was chosen because it is an exact division of 1 MHz, the operational speed of many early microprocessors. The first bit of each word identifies whether the word is a status byte or a data byte, and is followed by seven bits of information. A start bit and a stop bit are added to each byte for framing purposes, so a MIDI byte requires ten bits for transmission. A MIDI link can carry sixteen independent channels of information. | wiki:25699593 |
MIDI | Technical specifications | The channels are numbered 1–16, but their actual corresponding binary encoding is 0–15. A device can be configured to only listen to specific channels and to ignore the messages sent on other channels ("Omni Off" mode), or it can listen to all channels, effectively ignoring the channel address ("Omni On"). An individual device may be monophonic (the start of a new "note-on" MIDI command implies the termination of the previous note), or polyphonic (multiple notes may be sounding at once, until the polyphony limit of the instrument is reached, or the notes reach the end of their decay envelope, or explicit "note-off" MIDI commands are received). | wiki:25699594 |
MIDI | Technical specifications | Receiving devices can typically be set to all four combinations of "omni off/on" versus "mono/poly" modes. | wiki:25699595 |
MIDI | Messages | A MIDI message is an instruction that controls some aspect of the receiving device. A MIDI message consists of a status byte, which indicates the type of the message, followed by up to two data bytes that contain the parameters. MIDI messages can be "channel messages" sent on only one of the 16 channels and monitored only by devices on that channel, or "system messages" that all devices receive. Each receiving device ignores data not relevant to its function. There are five types of message: Channel Voice, Channel Mode, System Common, System Real-Time, and System Exclusive. Channel Voice messages transmit real-time performance data over a single channel. | wiki:25699596 |
MIDI | Messages | Examples include "note-on" messages which contain a MIDI note number that specifies the note's pitch, a velocity value that indicates how forcefully the note was played, and the channel number; "note-off" messages that end a note; program change messages that change a device's patch; and control changes that allow adjustment of an instrument's parameters. MIDI notes are numbered from 0 to 127 assigned to C-1 to G9. This corresponds to a range of 8.175798916 12543.85395 Hz (assuming equal temperament and 440 Hz A4) and extends beyond the 88 note piano range from A0 to C8. | wiki:25699597 |
MIDI | System Exclusive messages | System Exclusive (SysEx) messages are a major reason for the flexibility and longevity of the MIDI standard. Manufacturers use them to create proprietary messages that control their equipment more thoroughly than standard MIDI messages could. SysEx messages are addressed to a specific device in a system. Each manufacturer has a unique identifier that is included in its SysEx messages, which helps ensure that only the targeted device responds to the message, and that all others ignore it. Many instruments also include a SysEx ID setting, so a controller can address two devices of the same model independently. SysEx messages can include functionality beyond what the MIDI standard provides. | wiki:25699598 |
MIDI | System Exclusive messages | They target a specific instrument, and are ignored by all other devices on the system. | wiki:25699599 |
MIDI | Implementation chart | Devices typically do not respond to every type of message defined by the MIDI specification. The MIDI implementation chart was standardized by the MMA as a way for users to see what specific capabilities an instrument has, and how it responds to messages. A specific MIDI Implementation Chart is usually published for each MIDI device within the device documentation. | wiki:25699600 |