For a more complete discussion of MIDI, see the Website of the MIDI Manufacturers Association . This is data that corresponds to the MIDI wire protocol and contains no timing information. This message can come from an input device or a file. ShortMessages Note On and Note Off are the most common messages and have at most two data bytes following the status byte. SysexMessages contain system-exclusive MIDI messages.
Sysex messages are usually manufacturer exclusive and can be very large.
They are used to configure devices, and transfer digital information such as sample files between devices. MetaMessages are part of MIDI files, but part of MIDI wire protocol. Meta messages contain data, such as lyrics or tempo settings, that can be used by sequencers. An instance of MidiEvent represents the way a MIDI event might be stored in a Standard MIDI file with its timing information. MidiEvent contains methods for setting and getting an events timing value as well as a method to retrieve its raw MIDI message.