Why MIDI? MIDI files are often used by musicians and entertainers of all persuasion as they're just so darned handy. When it comes to computers, musicians and MIDI files, they are absolutely made for each other. Most computers have a sound card and most sound cards have a MIDI device embedded onto them, albeit some will sound better than others.

MIDI music is typically generated using a computer, an electronic organ or a synthesizer.

With the invention of the electronic organ and the sythesizer we have been able to replicate the sounds of many instruments electronically. Instruments such as the trumpet, harp, trombone, piano, percussion, drums, xylophone, guitar, saxophone, clarinet, flute, violin and many more sounds can easily be generated, then combined into a single MIDI file.

The ability of a MIDI device to replicate instrument sounds electronically is stored within a chip on the sound card inside the computer or inside the MIDI organ or MIDI synthesizer.

Similar to the pianola rolls of yester-year, a MIDI file is simply a set of codes that tells your sound card (MIDI device) which of its instruments it should play and when to play them.

The difference between a MIDI file compared to a mp3 file is vast as, once a midi file has been recorded you can easily change everything about it, unlike mp3.

Because it only contains code to instruct your sound card, a MIDI file is usually very small ranging in size from 15kb to around 100kb compared with 3,500kb - 8,000kb for a mp3.

With a MIDI player, you can really get into it, turning off the individual instruments as you please. Try doing that with mp3.

With a MIDI editor you can add more instruments at any time.