A Proposed Extension to the MIDI Specification concerning Tuning

Abstract

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specification was conceived originally as nothing more elaborate than a way to trigger one synthesizer's sound from another one's keyboard. It is therefore not surprising that the continuing and expanding use of MIDI in a wide variety of musical environments has revealed a number of deficiencies (Moore 1988). Although still called MIDI 1.0, the specification allows for extensions and addenda, and the current official version (International MIDI Association 1988) is much expanded from its initial publication in 1983. One area that has received little attention so far is that of tunings other than 12-tone equal temperament (12-ET). Perhaps owing to the clavier-based nature of MIDI synthesizers-or to their preponderant use in commercial music, where such subtleties are seldom explored-tuning traditionally has been a low priority for manufacturers. However, with five manufacturers (Emu, Ensoniq, Korg, Kurzweil, Yamaha) currently implementing one form or another of user-defined tuning in their instruments, the time for extending the MIDI specification to embrace this area may have arrived.