The MIDI interface has been with us since the 80s and there are many musicians who continue to use them to connect their musical instruments to the PC, but the MIDI port is not one of the most common ports so it is necessary to buy external hardware that gives it the necessary MIDI interface to the PC. If you have instruments with a MIDI interface or you want to start in music, follow our guide on MIDI-USB interfaces
In the world of computing, we have seen several ports appear and disappear, either because much better replacements have appeared or because they have been a real fiasco, but the MIDI connection continues to hold after almost forty years of its appearance on the market and that is because there are a lot of musicians who continue to use this interface.
We have decided to divide the article into two parts, in the first part we will explain what the MIDI format is and why it is still used today after so long. In the second we will give you a list of the best MIDI-USB interfaces so that you can connect your instruments to the PC, whether you want to start in this or you need a new interface.
What is the MIDI format?
In the history of audio devices, also known as sound cards, we have had different types of devices:
- Pulse Generators: Which generate a type of wave (square, triangular …) and cannot vary it per channel. The first sound card for PC, the Game Blaster was one of its kind.
- FM synthesizers: They were an advanced version of pulse generators, since they allowed changing waves and even different combinations of them. The first Sound Blasters were based on this technology.
- PCM: It is a file format that stores sound pulses, most modern sound formats are seen in a certain way, evolutions of PCM.
The problem musicians faced was that in the 1980s memory was expensive, but very expensive and it was very difficult to store an audio track digitally. Formats that are common to us like MP3 at that time had not been invented and the CPUs that were there were not fast enough to decompress these formats in real time.
That is why the MIDI format was invented, which does not store sound information, but what it stores is the way in which that sound is generated, so we are dealing with a procedural audio format.
How does the MIDI format work?
Imagine for a moment a score , obviously the score does not sound, but it indicates to the musician the notes to be played at each moment, their speed and even the duration of the silences.
The MIDI format does the same, but in binary code, in such a way that the device in charge of generating the audio when it receives the data from the file does not generate an audio wave that the instrument records, but rather that it interprets and generates a kind of score , which is the MIDI file, which can then be played to generate the same sounds.
One of the advantages of this is that, if we are recording a conventional audio file, it will be recorded as is and in wave form. But this is not the case with MIDI format, so it will be as simple as editing that “binary score” in an audio editing program on your PC, avoiding having to record all the instruments again.
Nowadays and after almost four decades, the MIDI format has been updated to version 2.0, which removed the 7-bit precision limitation of old MIDI.
Types of MIDI connections
There are three types of connections:
- MIDI out: Sends the data to a device with MIDI In interface, it is used by the instruments.
- MIDI in: Receives data from a MIDI Out interface and converts it to MIDI format
- MIDI thru: It is a variant of MIDI-IN, this type of port simply acts as a bridge and does not process the audio, so it does not generate a MIDI file.
The best MIDI-USB interfaces on the market
Here is a list of the best MIDI-USB interfaces on the market. What these interfaces do is work as a MIDI-IN interface, process the sound and send it to the PC through the USB port
MIDI-USB interface Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD
This Behringer MIDI interface gives us 2 MIDI-IN ports and another 2 MIDI-OUT ports , it is also fully compatible with audio editing software such as Avid Pro, Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, etc. In addition, it has the ability to record at a frequency of 192 KHz and with 24-bit precision.
Roland Rubix22 MIDI-USB interface
This Roland MIDI to USB interface features 2 MIDI-IN ports on the front and 2 MIDI-OUT ports on the rear, all in a robust metal housing.
Steinberg UR22 mkII MIDI-USB interface
Steinberg’s revision of the UR22 MIDI-USB interface is another model with two MIDI-IN ports and two MIDI-OUT ports with a robust metal casing. You can record at 192 KHz frequency with 24-bit quality.
Its USB interface is 2.0 and has the particularity that it can communicate with an iPad if we want to edit from the Apple tablet. It also includes a license for the Cubase AI program.
Scarlett Focusrite Solo 3rd Gen MIDI-USB interface
There are several models of the Scarlett Focusrite MIDI-USB interface, but we have decided to focus on the simplest one, which has a single MIDI-IN input and no MIDI-OUT, if you are new to this, you have only one instrument and you want a easy to use device we recommend this MIDI-USB interface.
MIDI-USB interface M-Audio AIR 192 | 6
We find another MIDI-USB interface with two MIDI-IN inputs and two MIDI-OUT inputs, which can record with a quality of 192 KHz and 24 bits . In addition, its USB interface is type-C , which allows it to transmit information to the PC with the lowest possible latency.