What’s on the MIDI Basics poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
A protocol from 1983 for sending performance data between instruments: which note, how hard, when to stop. It contains no audio, which is why a MIDI file can be re-voiced with any instrument.
- Note on / note off carry pitch and velocity.
- Velocity is 0–127 and usually maps to loudness.
- Note numbers are 0–127; middle C is 60.
- 16 channels per port, each addressing a different instrument.
- CC messages carry everything else: modulation, sustain, expression.
- Program change selects a patch.
- Velocity — 0–127
- Middle C — note 60
- Channels — 16
- A MIDI piano part can be turned into a string part without re-recording anything.
MIDI 2.0 adds higher resolution and two-way communication, but MIDI 1.0 is still what almost everything speaks.
Questions about the MIDI Basics poster
- What’s on the MIDI Basics poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. A protocol from 1983 for sending performance data between instruments: which note, how hard, when to stop. It contains no audio, which is why a MIDI file can be re-voiced with any instrument. Note on / note off carry pitch and velocity.; Velocity is 0–127 and usually maps to loudness.; Note numbers are 0–127; middle C is 60.; 16 channels per port, each addressing a different instrument.; CC messages carry everything else: modulation, sustain, expression.; Program change selects a patch.; Velocity — 0–127; Middle C — note 60; Channels — 16; A MIDI piano part can be turned into a string part without re-recording anything.. MIDI 2.0 adds higher resolution and two-way communication, but MIDI 1.0 is still what almost everything speaks.
- Who is the MIDI Basics poster for?
- MIDI Basics belongs to the Music section rather than to a school year, because music is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning production can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the MIDI Basics poster?
- MIDI carries no sound at all. It carries instructions, and the instrument makes the sound. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so MIDI Basics belongs on the wall where that music work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with MIDI Basics?
- Audio File Formats, Compression and DAW Basics sit alongside MIDI Basics in the Music section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Audio File FormatsCompressionDAW Basics
- Is the MIDI Basics poster free to download and print?
- Yes. MIDI Basics downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Music section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the MIDI Basics poster print at?
- MIDI Basics is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of MIDI Basics loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside MIDI Basics on the same wall.
Browse every Music poster, or start from the full catalogue.