These days, audio hardware doesn't include a hardware MIDI synthesizer. That means MIDI files are very small, but back in the day, it also meant that presentation of the music varied a lot based on your audio hardware. MIDI files, unlike contemporary music 'module' formats, don't include the samples with their musical sequences the file is just a sequence of notes with some control data. When nerds like me start talking about MIDI, it's usually in the context of old PC games that used the format for lightweight music.
Despite being virtually unchanged since its release in 1983, MIDI remains by far the most popular digital interface for musicians. At the 2019 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM)show, the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) just announced that it is in the preliminary prototyping phase of drafting the MIDI 2.0 standard. What springs to mind when I say 'MIDI,' gerbils? Is it perhaps thoughts of an old Gravis Ultrasound or Sound Blaster AWE? Expensive Roland synthesis hardware? Perhaps you're actually a musician who still uses the Musical Instrument Digital Interface to this day.
