1. European Robotic LABoratory
EURLAB
European
Robotic
LABoratory
Basic skill I.1: MIDI & Arduino What is MIDI

2. BS I.1: MIDI ?
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a standard communication language for the control of electronic musical instruments (synthesizers).  
Synthesizers can be part of both electronic music devices and computer's sound cards.

3. BS I.1: MIDI ?
Born in the early '80, it soon became popular in the music industry because of:  
small size files (which resulted in MIDI files being widely used to share music online);  
accessibility;  
cost-effectiveness;  
flexibility.

4. MIDI files don't contain the music itself,
BS I.1: MIDI ?
MIDI files don't contain the music itself,
but all the information needed to create it.
As an example, we could compare MIDI files to food recipes: they are not food, but they provide you with all the knowledge you need - starting from ingredients - in order to prepare it.
MIDI
file
synth music

5. BS I.1: MIDI ?
Therefore, MIDI files contain a set of messages which tell synthesizers what they must generate.
MIDI
file
SYNTH
MIDI message