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Sound & Production

MIDI

The short version

Instructions for notes — not sound itself.

A little more

MIDI stores which note, when, how long and how hard. It makes no noise on its own; an instrument reads it and produces the sound.

Hear it
Why you'd careBecause it's just instructions, you can change the notes, the timing or the entire instrument afterwards. Audio can't do that.
Learn next
AudioAn actual recorded sound wave.VelocityHow hard a single note was struck, stored as a number.SequencerThe grid where you place hits in time.QuantizationSnapping notes onto the timing grid so they're perfectly in time.

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