The MIDI 1.0 specification was released in 1984 in an attempt to end the Babel of proprietary interfaces that dominated the early days of electronic synthesis. This product of the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA), a consortium of large and small manufacturers of electronic musical gear, has been the backbone of live music performance for over 2 decades now. This is a testament to it's foresight and a clear acknowledgement of the need that it filled. Initially it specified only the basic interconnection of gear and a simple data protocol. The application layers were left to the manufacturers to define. This still made interconnection of gear from multiple manufacturers a challenge and patch and controller assignments had to be re-learned with each new piece of gear that one added to a rig. Eventually, separate application layers were defined; General MIDI and GM2, MIDI Machine Control, Standard MIDI Files, and MIDI Show control allowed true integration of equipment from multiple manufacturers to automate studios and live performance. This did not prevent proprietary extensions such as Roland's GS and Yamaha's XG extended GM sets.

Digital audio is continuing to remake the whole technology of music making. It has become the dominant force in the creation and processing of sound. On the other hand the distribution and routing of audio signals has largely remained in the analog domain. Digital technology is capable, however, of transforming even this process.

Electronic Musician has an article this month on the emerging technology of digital audio networks. This technology will have an impact on us in the near future. This could address things like how to we wirelessly connect multiple channels of audio to our remote amplifiers and speaker systems when routing via wires is not possible.

Those interested in confronting this brave new world can check it out further in this article.