ABSTRACT
The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was originally designed for synthesizer interconnection, and is now used widely in many parts of the entertainment industry. MIDI’s roots are in the early 1980s, when, with the explosive growth of sophisticated keyboard synthesizers, musicians began to want their keyboards linked to simplify complex studio and liveperformance setups. Several manufacturers had developed proprietary interfaces to connect their own equipment, but these systems would not work with gear from other manufacturers. In 1981, engineers at Sequential Circuits, a major manufacturer at the time, began talks with their counterparts at Roland and Yamaha in order to standardize inter-synthesizer connections. These talks eventually resulted in the formation of the MIDI Manufacturer’s Association (MMA), and the release of the official MIDI specification in 1983.
