standard midi file format
www.EC66.com
dustin caldwell
the standard midi file format is a very strange beast. when viewed as a
whole, it can be quite overwhelming. of course, no matter how you look at it,
describing a piece of music in enough detail to be able to reproduce it
accurately is no small task. so, while complicated, the structure of the midi
file format is fairly intuitive when understood.
i must insert a disclaimer here that i am by no means an expert with
midi nor midi files. i recently obtained a gravis ultrasound board for my pc,
and upon hearing a few midi files (.mid) thought, "gee, i'd like to be able to
make my own .mid files." well, many aggravating hours later, i discovered that
this was no trivial task. but, i couldn't let a stupid file format stop me.
(besides, i once told my wife that computers aren't really that hard to use,
and i'd hate to be a hypocrite) so if any errors are found in this
information, please let me know and i will fix it. also, this document's scope
does not extend to every type of midi command and every possible file
configuration. it is a basic guide that should enable the reader (with a
moderate investment in time) to generate a quality midi file.