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MIDI
What is a MIDI file?
Not audio but instructions — which note, how hard, how long. Needs rendering to become sound.
What MIDI is
MIDI is a binary format, meaningful only to a program that knows it. It is used for editing.
The extension is .mid, and the full name is MIDI Sequence. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where MIDI came from
MIDI Manufacturers Association published it in 1983. The specification is Standard MIDI File.
A format that has been readable for that long is a format worth trusting with something you want back in ten years.
The specification is public
Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.
What else it can carry
MIDI can hold several audio tracks.
That matters mostly when converting: whatever the target cannot hold is dropped, usually without a warning.
What opens MIDI
MuseScore, Logic Pro and Ableton Live read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a working format
MIDI is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .mid, .midi |
|---|---|
| Media type | audio/midi |
| Published by | MIDI Manufacturers Association |
| First published | 1983 |
| Specification | Standard MIDI File |