What is a MIDI file/score? What is a MIDI file used for typically?

[Anne Goodwin]

I apologize that I do not know what I am about to ask about and that is 'what is a MIDI file?' What does it look like? Who uses a MIDI file and under what types of circumstances? In one discussion here on Composer's Forum, a forum member said, "A midi score is a set of instructions for instruments to make sound. It is NOT different than a printed score of dots except that it is a vastly more detailed set of instructions down to every detail of nuance." So, I was wondering if someone could explain to me, a person who is accustomed to reading and performing from musical scores from published sources and buying them in music stores, what exactly is a MIDI score? Do you need special training to be able to read and interpret one? Up until recently, I think I thought a MIDI score was the same thing as a regular score except simplified (i.e. perhaps less attention to dynamics and other 'details'). However, if the quote above is accurate, then I am concluding that it is something else. Also, can anyone post a typical example of a MIDI file/score for me to look at? Thanks to all for any explanations provided!

[Adrian Allan]

Ok Anne, this is how I understand it, but there are many on this site who know more than me, but I think I can put this in layman's terms.

Midi is the language that was designed for electronic instruments to "talk" to each other in the same language. It was developed in the early 1980s.

So a midi file is a set of instructions for sound (music) that can be "read" by a computer. It is based on values of 1-127, for example the velocity (loudness) of notes. If you download a midi file off the internet it will probably sound really basic as it used your computer's generic sounds. It will probably open up in windows media player by default. I won't post one here, but just search for "midi file" and you will find thousands.

What computer music people can do - most people here - is download a midi file in a program like cubase and assign each sound to a sound library file like East West Symphonic Orchestra. So instead of the basic sound you hear in windows media player, the midi file can be assigned to play realistic violin sounds, for example. Or switch that and turn your violin sounds into a trumpet, etc. In a program like cubase the midi data is presented in the format of blocks representing notes. This is how many people here work - they look at these "blocks" of midi data and read these instead of the more traditional notation you are used to reading.

So you can think of the midi file as the "raw template" that computer music people use to trigger more professional sounds. Once you have allocated all the sounds you want the next stage is called "exporting" it to an audio file which is the finished product.

There is another option on all of this. You might want to visually see what the file looks like in terms of traditional notation. There are many programs that do this for you and you have Sibelius which can do this for you. If you import a midi file into Sibelius off the internet it will come up as traditonal notation. Some composers here and elsewhere also want to see their music in terms of notation, but others are happy just to work with the midi "blocks" I mentioned (actually called a "piano roll").

The real beauty of midi files is their ability to be manipulated. The advanced producer/ mixer will tweak the midi file until all the settings start to sound "human" rather than computerised. The the file will be re-saved in this new format. You tend to do this sort of work in a sequencer program like Cubase.

I should also mention that the more usual term is "midi file". When midi scores are spoken of, we are usually referring to people who have not done two things

1. assigned the midi data to sound library instruments

2. assigned the midi data to a proper scoring program like Sibelius.

Midi will not show markings like hairpins and dymanics or other score markings. So if you open a midi file in program like Sibelius, you only get the basic notation. Midi cannot do this (and most midi users don't use it for this anyway). However, you can get an idea of what it might sound like once you have taken the route of adding more markings to the score (if you aim to have it played live) or assigned it to proper music library sounds.

In a forum called "young composers' forum" many people show off their music as midi files (to be opened as a score on Sibelius etc) and it gives people a basic idea of what is intended.

Hope this helps.

[Ray Kemp]

You could start by reading this GENERAL MIDI

then THIS

and once you've digested that and have an understanding of the concept we can move on.

In lay-persons terms the information about the way a note is played..... key, velocity, length, etc etc is recorded as a midi note which includes all these details. That recorded midi information when played back will trigger the virtual instrument to sound as the original. like a piano roll but with much more control over the various nuances of the sound.

[Ray Kemp]

Adrian Allan said:

So a midi file is a set of instructions for sound (music) that can be "read" by a computer. It is based on values of 1-127,
Hope this helps.

actually 0~127 or 1~128

[Anne Goodwin]

Thanks Adrian. You did a beautiful job of putting all of that into layman's terms! I feel like I can move forward with this now; I did receive a certain amount of explanation in my Sibelius course regarding MIDI but since I have never worked with a DAW (except Kontakt which comes with Sibelius 5 and even so, I have limited ability with it), I was still experiencing what my engineer husband calls a 'disconnect.' I feel much better informed now. Thanks very much!

[Anne Goodwin]

Thanks also to you Ray. I printed out the information in the reference you provided. I also understand the 0 - 127 / 1 -128 thing.

[AndrewG]

Hi Anne, your assumption

"a MIDI score is the same thing as a regular score except simplified (i.e. perhaps less attention to dynamics and other 'details')"

is incorrect. Think of a MIDI score as of a sequence of VERY precise instructions for a machine how to play notes and on which instruments. For every note there is an EXACT instruction about 1) start time; 2) release time and 3) velocity, i.e. the power of the strike for this specific note. NO other information about crescendos, diminuendos, dynamics, legatos etc.

This is more precise data than a traditional score, which is intended for a human performer. You may also think of a MIDI score as of the result of performing a traditional score (by a human or by a machine). This is simply an exact history of keypresses.

MIDI score can be transformed into ordinary score, but often very incorrectly, especially if it resulted from a free performance. Conversely, as I stated above, an ordinary score can be transformed into a MIDI score and then edited for adding effects. MIDI file is simply a MIDI score stored in the computer memory.

[Anne Goodwin]

Thanks for the clarification Andrew. Like everything, I imagine once I begin working with these files - whether made directly from a performance or from a regular score that has become a MIDI file - then I will understand all of it much better. In the meantime, I apparently have a lot to learn. :) By the way, if you have anything to send me for practice purposes for music engraving, feel free . . . keeping in mind that I am new to this. P.S. This invitation is NOT open to the entire forum. :)

[AndrewG]

Thanks Anne. As a matter of fact, all the music I posted in my profile here is improvised and exists in a MIDI and Audio forms only (no classic notation). If you choose some of the pieces (especially classically instrumented), I will send you the MIDI for practicing. But you will need to make decisions about the meter, bar lines, dynamic signs, engarmonics etc. Probably this is too complicated and you better not...

[Anne Goodwin]

LOL! Probably you are right! (And like I don't have enough to do anyway . . . !) :) It was just a thought. :)

[AndrewG]

Thank you Anne for choosing the pieces and making our collaboration. I've sent the MIDI to your email address. One of the greatest advantages of this forum is the possibility to share ideas and organize collaborative work!

[Jan Civil]

midi as instructions is meant for a machine to read, not so much a person. graphically it can take a number of forms.
one of these is a piano roll editor, where the durational and timing info is horizontal blocks which are vertically arranged to indicate pitch. but that's just 'note-on/note-off' data. then there is velocity, which is how hard the note is attacked. then there is expression control, which is a rather large range of midi protocols you can call on to affect response in the 'synthesizer' or instrument (eg., sample player).

it's not nearly as simplifed as a score. Rhythmically, for instance.

as an exercise take a piece of - let's say piano music to keep it simple -you find very expressive in a Sibelius format score, 'save as .mid', and have a piano virtual instrument (vsti) synthesize that. there isn't enough information in the 'quantization' of those dots rhythmically to give you something very musical, as it's been simplified, that score; as a suggestion for a human to interpret the writer's intention, along with some other general markings or even textual information into a piece of music you'd want to try and enjoy. That is to say it isn't an absolute language. Also, the tempo indication in most scores is very general. There is 'modern' music which seeks to more closely indicate all the timing subtleties, but for the most part this is left to intepretation.

MIDI is. What you see is what you get. In Cubase, my preference is to display and edit durational data to the maximum available resolution: quarter note = 4000 pulses.
So, rhythmically, I am not limited in terms of resolution, that's very fine. A nudge or drag of 1 pulse, 1/4000th of the quarter note may seem almost absurdly fine, but it's useful to me to have it. So, a flexibility of rhythm is available far beyond what a person can translate in real time from what she reads. A tempo can be changed at any point in this display if you zoom all the way in, down to milliseconds.

most of the protocol (eg., velocity) is 0-127. there are things such as pitchbend and afterpressure (for expression) which aren't part of this particular protocol (but can be transformed to for editing purposes). This former protocol is called CC, for, I don't know, control code (there are two types, a switch or toggle, On vs Off, say 0-63 vs 64-127; and continous controllers which use the whole range). Physically, these CCs are assigned to 'controllers' such as knobs, wheels, levers, ribbons on hardware devices. Usually you'd go in with graphical tools such as a pencil or paintbrush or geometrical shapes to edit this data in lanes inside the piano roll editor. A basic CC is CC7 which by default is for 'volume'. That's a 0-127 gradation.

In Cubase 5.01 and above, the dynamics you use in the score editor, regular score markings, and also articulations, are midi data. For these articulations you have to have mapped the actual instrument by 'vst expressions', which only that DAW has I think. NB: 'score editor' in a DAW is not a solution for a detailed score for printing, but it's handy as a graphical aid if that's what one is used to.

[Anne Goodwin]

Thanks for the detailed information Jan. At this point, from my perspective, I'm coming to the conclusion that it is going to be - at the very least - no mean feat to be able to 'transcribe' from MIDI file to a notation program such as Sibelius or Finale without going through some process in-between. Now whether that in-between process actually exists in some way or another is what I don't really know. From what I have learned so far, and as you (and others) have also said, MIDI files are meant for computers to talk to each other and not for making a score that humans can perform from, at least not easily so. So, for example, you mention things about Cubase but it is not clear to me whether one can take a 'score' from Cubase and work from that to make a traditional score - i.e. classical style. One learns every day new things so I am looking forward to learning a lot in the next while! (I hope!) :)