showstack / protocols / midi
MIDI 1.0
Also called Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
The original 1983 serial protocol for exchanging musical performance data (notes, control/program changes, sysex) between instruments, controllers, consoles, and show-control gear; the base layer that MIDI Show Control and MIDI Time Code both ride on top of.
Stewarded by MIDI Association (MMA/AMEI).
Control
Small, urgent, must arrive
Small messages that either repeat constantly or fire once. Bandwidth is almost never the problem.
What kills it. Latency and loss on the messages that fire once. A repeating level survives a dropped packet; a GO does not.
What goes wrong
Classic 5-pin DIN MIDI runs at 31,250 baud (8-N-1 async serial) and is one-way per cable; most modern rigs tunnel MIDI over USB or Bluetooth LE instead of DIN.
MIDI Show Control and MIDI Time Code are message subprofiles of MIDI 1.0, not separate wire protocols, which confuses people troubleshooting compatibility.
Only 16 channels per port/cable, which limits large-scale device addressing without merge/split boxes or additional interfaces.
What speaks MIDI 1.0 (63)
63 products — 26 hardware, 37 softwareshow all
| Product | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ableton Live Ableton AG |
bidirectional | MIDI in and out for control surfaces and instruments. MIDI Clock can be sent to an external sequencer or received to slave Live, set per port with the Sync switch in Link/Tempo/MIDI preferences. |
| Ardour Ardour Community |
bidirectional | MIDI control and machine control. |
| ArKaos MediaMaster ArKaos |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| Avolites Titan Avolites |
in | MIDI is one of the external trigger types and is not available on every console; USB MIDI devices are supported for triggering and control. |
| Bome MIDI Translator Pro Bome Software |
bidirectional | Core. |
| ChamSys MagicQ ChamSys |
in needs licence |
MIDI notes and CC from third-party USB or virtual interfaces require Unlocked mode. |
| Daslight Daslight (Nicolaudie) |
in | MIDI triggering. |
| Depence Syncronorm GmbH |
in | Listed among Depence's documented show-control integration protocols. |
| DMXControl 3 DMXControl Projects e.V. |
in | MIDI triggering. |
| dot2 onPC MA Lighting |
bidirectional | MIDI note remote input, and MIDI note output from cues or the command line. On onPC you must choose the MIDI in and out devices yourself in Tools > MIDI Configuration. |
| Eos Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) |
bidirectional | Raw MIDI can be sent and received. MIDI notes are output only, and cannot be received by a Net3 Show Control Gateway. |
| Go Button Figure 53 |
bidirectional | MIDI triggering over a network or interface. |
| Hippotizer Green Hippo (an ACT Entertainment brand) |
in | MultiController maps MIDI controllers (and Stream Deck) to Hippotizer pins. Feedback capability is referenced but not documented in detail, so outbound MIDI is unconfirmed. |
| Isadora TroikaTronix (Mark Coniglio) |
bidirectional | MIDI input and output listed on the specifications page. |
| Lightkey Lightkey |
in | MIDI triggering from surfaces. |
| Max Cycling '74 |
bidirectional | Core to Max since the beginning. |
| Medialon Control System Medialon (Barco) |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| Millumin Anomes (Philippe Chaurand) |
bidirectional | MIDI sources and destinations are enabled individually in the Devices tab; inputs can send feedback back to the controller (e.g. motorised faders). |
| Mitti Imimot |
bidirectional | MIDI triggering. |
| Mixing Station David Giga |
bidirectional | MIDI control where the console supports it. |
| Modul8 GarageCUBE |
bidirectional | MIDI control from surfaces. |
| Multiplay Da-Share |
bidirectional | MIDI triggering. |
| Node-RED OpenJS Foundation |
bidirectional | Via community nodes. |
| Notch Notch (10bit FX Limited) |
bidirectional | Vendor features page states MIDI input and output. |
| ONYX Obsidian Control Systems |
in needs licence |
MIDI notes and commands trigger Go, Pause, Release, Flash and similar. ONYX does not generate MIDI messages, it only passes them along. Fully enabled from the NOVA+ tier. |
| Open Stage Control Jean-Emmanuel Doucet |
bidirectional | Core. |
| openFrameworks openFrameworks community |
bidirectional | Core addon. |
| Processing Processing Foundation |
bidirectional | Through libraries. |
| ProPresenter Renewed Vision |
bidirectional | MIDI triggering. |
| ProVideoPlayer (PVP) Renewed Vision |
in | MIDI triggering. |
| Pure Data Miller Puckette and contributors |
bidirectional | Built in. |
| REAPER Cockos Incorporated |
bidirectional | MIDI in and out for control surfaces and MIDI learn on parameters; MIDI clock is enabled per output device in Preferences > Audio > MIDI Devices. |
| Show Cue System (SCS) Show Cue Systems |
bidirectional | MIDI triggering and output. |
| Smode Smode Tech |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| TouchOSC Hexler |
bidirectional | Core. |
| Ventuz Ventuz Technology |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| vvvv vvvv group |
bidirectional | Standard nodes. |
| Alcorn McBride A/V Binloop HD Alcorn McBride |
bidirectional | Control. |
| Allen & Heath Avantis Allen & Heath |
bidirectional | Control. |
| Allen & Heath dLive S7000 Allen & Heath |
bidirectional | MIDI control and scene recall. |
| Allen & Heath SQ-6 Allen & Heath |
bidirectional | MIDI over DIN and USB. |
| Analog Way Picturall Mark II Analog Way |
in | MIDI control. |
| Avid VENUE S6L-32D Avid |
bidirectional | MIDI for snapshot and external control. |
| Avolites Arena Avolites |
bidirectional | Notes and MSC. |
| Avolites Diamond 9 Avolites |
bidirectional | MIDI and MIDI timecode over DIN. |
| Avolites Tiger Touch III Avolites |
bidirectional | MIDI over DIN. |
| Behringer X32 Behringer |
bidirectional | MIDI in and out over DIN. |
| ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium ChamSys |
bidirectional | MIDI notes and MSC over the DIN ports. |
| Christie Pandoras Box Christie |
bidirectional | MIDI in and out. |
| Crestron CP4N Control System Crestron |
bidirectional | Through modules. |
| DiGiCo Quantum 338 DiGiCo |
bidirectional | MIDI for snapshot triggering and external control. |
| DiGiCo SD12 DiGiCo |
bidirectional | Control. |
| ETC Ion Xe 20 ETC |
bidirectional | MIDI notes and MSC. |
| grandMA2 full-size MA Lighting |
bidirectional | MIDI notes, MIDI timecode and MSC. |
| Medialon Showmaster Pro Medialon (Barco) |
bidirectional | Control. |
| Midas HD96-24 Midas |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| Obsidian Control Systems NX4 Obsidian Control Systems |
bidirectional | MIDI and MSC. |
| AV Stumpfl PIXERA one AV Stumpfl |
bidirectional | MIDI control. |
| SSL Live L550 Solid State Logic |
bidirectional | Control. |
| Yamaha CL5 Yamaha |
bidirectional | MIDI control and scene recall. |
| Yamaha DM7 Yamaha |
bidirectional | Control. |
| Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Yamaha |
bidirectional | MIDI control and scene recall. |
| Zero 88 FLX S48 Zero 88 |
bidirectional | MIDI in and out. |
Open source implementations
- RtMidi — C++
The words for it
Glossary entries that name MIDI 1.0, with the false friends that catch people out.
Sources
Understand the mechanism
Something wrong, or missing?
Known gaps on this entry: default_ports, first_published. If you can source one of them, that is a ten minute pull request.
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