You may have heard that MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It enables people to use multimedia computers and electronic musical instruments to create, enjoy and learn about music. There are actually three components to MIDI, which are the communications Protocol (language), the Connector (hardware interface) and a distribution format called Standard MIDI Files.

MIDI files do not contain actual recorded music. Instead, the music sequence is recorded as a series of numbers which explain how the music is to be played back. One reason for the popularity of MIDI files is that, unlike digital audio files (.wav, .aiff, etc.) or even compact discs or cassettes, a MIDI file does not need to capture and store actual sounds. Instead, the MIDI file can be just a list of events which describe the specific steps that a soundcard or other playback device must take to generate ceratin sounds. This way, MIDI files are very much smaller than digital audio files, and the events are also editable, allowing the music to be rearranged, edited, even composed interactively, if desired..