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MIDI is short for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface", a serial interface created by the synthesizer industry in the early 1980s in an attempt to modernize how synthesizers, drum machines and computers talked to each other. In gaming and on PCs, however, it refers specifically to ''General MIDI'', a specification championed by synth maker Roland to provide a standard base of sounds and commands for an entry-level synthesizer. The first General MIDI-compliant synthesizer was Roland's own SC-50 ''Sound Canvas'', released in 1991.
General MIDI was quite attractive in the early days of computing, because it was (and is) very portable. It only provided ''notation'' for a song, not the sounds themselves; if [[Wav Audio|WAV files]] were recordings and synthesizers were orchestras and bands, then MIDI files were merely the sheet music, an object that is smaller (often only a few KB) and rather more portable than an orchestra. The problem came with the ''lack'' of orchestra. Sheet music needs to be performed, after all, and if the entity ''performing'' it (like a [[Pac
The increase in cheap computing power also had the effect of making General MIDI itself obsolete on consumer devices. As hard disk and memory capacity increased, it became easier to include pre-recorded music and elaborate sound-processing engines directly in games for PCs and stationary consoles, making the size advantages of General MIDI moot. Today, MOD and General MIDI are not used for much besides [[Musical Gameplay|games that need precise tempo control]], music in [[Nintendo DS]] games, and ringtones on low-end cellphones. Even smartphones have switched to [[MP 3]] or MP4 ringtones.
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