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MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It defines the standard that allows musical instruments, computer hardware and software to communicate musical information with each other. MIDI information is communicated in two ways: using the MIDI protocol and with Standard MIDI files.
The MIDI protocol defines what data is sent from one device to another in order to communicate musical events. For example when a key is pressed on a MIDI keyboard, a Note On event is sent to the keyboard's MIDI output and then through a MIDI cable and received by another MIDI instrument's MIDI input. This event describes which note was played and how fast (the velocity) it was pressed.
A Standard MIDI file is used to store information about a song on disk. It includes the song title, track names, and most importantly what instruments to use and the sequence of musical events, such as notes, needed to play back the song.
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