Please close the window before we continue. If all works as described, you could move ahead to browser controls , which you use to stop, start, and otherwise control sounds over the Web. Instead MIDI files contain only information on how sounds are to be played. For example, a MIDI file can tell a MIDI device to play its violin sound on middle C for the first beat of bar six. The chief disadvantage of MIDI on the Web is the lack of standard playback devices.
Sound quality varies among soundcards and playback software.
A rich violin on one user's card may be reduced to a nasal buzz on another's software synthesizer. To clarify this situation, let's consider at the MIDI devices that actually play the sounds indicated by MIDI files. Although playback devices vary at this time, there is clear momentum toward minimal standards in playback devices. See the section below on emerging standards for details on encouraging and exciting solutions to the problem of unpredictable MIDI sounds. MIDI is in no way a technology for actually recording sound.