MIDI vs. Digital
Audio
MIDI
MIDI files contain no sound.
Repeat, MIDI files contain no sound! They contain
only performance data.
Piano Rolls
In years gone by, player pianos
played music by "reading" holes punched in a roll of paper. You
could hold that paper to your ear all day long and never hear
any sound from it. That's because the paper was only a conveyor
of information. It told the piano what notes to play, but the
piano did the actual playing.
MIDI files are the piano rolls of
the electronic age. They contain no sound, but tell the computer
or electronic keyboard what to play.
For Example:
Imagine a guy playing your
favorite song on a keyboard. By pressing the keys, he's
"telling" the keyboard what notes to play and how long to play
them.
Now imagine the guy being
replaced by a computer. The computer sends signals to the
keyboard that tell it what notes to play and how long to play
them. These are MIDI signals.
Now imagine the keyboard being
replaced by your computer's sound card. When playing MIDI, a
sound card is acting like a little keyboard in your computer.
The MIDI file is "telling" it what to play.
Now imagine someone taking the guy's keyboard away and replacing
it with a different model. This new one might have a better or
worse sound than the first one. Likewise, a MIDI file will sound
a little bit different when played on another person's sound
card. It just depends on what kind of card he or she has.
Advantages of MIDI files
MIDI files are tiny, often
10K or less. They download from a web page in no time and fit
easily on a floppy disk. MIDI files are ideal any time you want
music to start playing immediately.
Disadvantages of MIDI files
Because they sound a little
different when played on different sound cards, there is no
guarantee that those lush horns won't sound like blaring
trumpets on the next guy's machine. Making universal MIDI files
is a combination of art, skill, and experience.
Digital Audio
Digital audio files are like tape
recordings. They store every yelp, screech and caterwaul exactly
as you make it, then reproduce them on playback, no matter what
kind of machine they are played on.
Advantages of audio files
They can reproduce exact sounds
with better-than-CD quality, including all yelps, screeches and
caterwauls.
Disadvantages of audio files
They are HUGE! They can take up 10MB
or more per minute of sound. Even a simple one can take several
minutes to download and play. This is why most audio files on
the web are quick snippets of 1 second or less.
On the web, audio files are best
used as "streaming" media, where the user clicks to hear a
selection as it comes down, saving the trouble of waiting for a
long download.
What About
MP3?
MP3 is an audio format which takes
all the frequencies only your dog or your pet elephant could
hear and removes them. Then it compresses what's left, much like
other files are "zipped" or "stuffed" to download faster from
the Internet.
MP3 is an attempt to combine the
small size of MIDI files with the high quality of other audio
formats. The quality of MP3 files makes some recording engineers
balk, and they are still larger than MIDI files, but they
provide a good compromise that most people are happy with.
That's why they have soared in popularity. |
