- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Illustrations
- About the Companion Web Site
- 1 The Background to 1945
- 2 Paris and <i>Musique Concrète</i>
- 3 Cologne and <i>Elektronische Musik</i>
- 4 Milan and Elsewhere in Europe
- 5 America
- 6 The Voltage‐Controlled Synthesizer
- 7 Works for Tape
- 8 Live Electronic Music
- 9 Rock and Pop Electronic Music
- 10 The Foundations of Computer Music
- 11 From Computer Technology to Musical Creativity
- 12 The Microprocessor Revolution
- 13 The Characteristics of Digital Audio
- 14 The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
- 15 From Analog to Digital: The Evolution of MIDI Hardware
- 16 From Microcomputer to Music Computer: The MIDI Perspective
- 17 Further Advances in Hardware Design
- 18 The Changing Fortunes of the MIDI Manufacturing Sector
- 19 From Minicomputer to Advanced Computer Workstation
- 20 The Personal Computer
- 21 The Digital Audio Workstation
- 22 Laptop Music and Related Activities
- 23 Synthesis, Signal Processing, and Spatialization
- 24 Performance Controllers, Evolution and Change
- 25 The Internet
- 26 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
- Chapter:
- (p.262) (p.263) 14 The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
- Source:
- Electronic and Computer Music
- Author(s):
Peter Manning
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter describes the development of MIDI as an industry standard communications protocol for the control of synthesizers. The idea of establishing an industry-standard digital protocol for connecting synthesizers and associated peripherals together at the control level was first proposed informally at a meeting of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) in the early summer of 1981. By September 1982 the draft of a considerably expanded specification was complete, including the final choice of an acronym, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI. By the end of the year, both Sequential Circuits and Roland were producing synthesizers with MIDI-compatible interfaces, and a demonstration at the January 1983 meeting of NAMM finally persuaded manufacturers that this was a development that had to be taken seriously.
Keywords: MIDI synthesizer, industry standards, digital protocol, Sequential Circuits, Roland, National Association of Music Merchants
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Illustrations
- About the Companion Web Site
- 1 The Background to 1945
- 2 Paris and <i>Musique Concrète</i>
- 3 Cologne and <i>Elektronische Musik</i>
- 4 Milan and Elsewhere in Europe
- 5 America
- 6 The Voltage‐Controlled Synthesizer
- 7 Works for Tape
- 8 Live Electronic Music
- 9 Rock and Pop Electronic Music
- 10 The Foundations of Computer Music
- 11 From Computer Technology to Musical Creativity
- 12 The Microprocessor Revolution
- 13 The Characteristics of Digital Audio
- 14 The Development of the MIDI Communications Protocol
- 15 From Analog to Digital: The Evolution of MIDI Hardware
- 16 From Microcomputer to Music Computer: The MIDI Perspective
- 17 Further Advances in Hardware Design
- 18 The Changing Fortunes of the MIDI Manufacturing Sector
- 19 From Minicomputer to Advanced Computer Workstation
- 20 The Personal Computer
- 21 The Digital Audio Workstation
- 22 Laptop Music and Related Activities
- 23 Synthesis, Signal Processing, and Spatialization
- 24 Performance Controllers, Evolution and Change
- 25 The Internet
- 26 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index