In order to play more than one note at a time, you had to buy a separate oscillators for each tone in the chord. Shortly after the Oberheim release, companies like Sequential Circuits, Yamaha, Moog, Arp, and Roland started developing their own polyphonic synthesizers. Now there are MIDI mixers, lighting mixers, effects units and dance mats. The most important thing to remember is that MIDI is not a language, nor does it directly describe musical sounds. The basis of all computer operation is binary.
Binary digit is abbreviated, bit.
Status bytes describe the kind of information sent, whether a key is pressed, the pitch wheel is moved, or other actions take place. This is the first byte sent by a MIDI instrument when an action occurs. Data bytes follow the status byte and indicate the actual values of the event. The long stretches created some interference with the stage lighting and audio systems, so they used serial communication which can reach up to about 50 feet. Pin 2 is used for shielding.