Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, as well as MIDI controllers, represent a revolution in how we create, perform, edit and record musicThis is even more true with each passing day as computers become more powerful, compact and pervasive.

At its core, sound is analogThat is, sound waves can exist in infinite combinationsThis is necessary for sound to seem rich and unique, but it makes recording and transmitting much more difficult.

This is where digitizing and MIDI come inBy breaking down sound into various qualities, and by representing each with a number, we gain an ability to create and transmit sounds in a way that would be quite difficult were we working with infinite possibilities.

There are many ways of digitally encoding sound, of which MIDI is but oneMIDI is a method specialized for musicRather than encoding the sounds themselves, a process that would require lots of disk space and processing power, MIDI merely encodes the commands required to recreate the musicFor instance, rather than encoding the sound of a note being played, MIDI instead encodes the pitch of the note along with its duration, volume and other characteristics.