Maybe I'm dating myself a bit here, but MIDI files are binary constructs into music.
Basic binary breakdown: Each 0 or 1 is a bit, 4 bits make a nibble and 8 bits make a byte.
moving right along...
In a MIDI file each 'digital word' is 10 bits (8 bits [1 byte] plus a start bit and an end bit)
When a 'digital word' is read the start bit and end bit are ignored (these are in place to let the program know where to start and where to finish) The bit at the far left is the most significant bit, while the remaining 7 bits are considered least significant bits.
(why they call 7 bits all the least significant is beyond me lol)
MIDI messages (or notes in this case) usually consist of a few of these bytes. The MIDI program reads the most significant byte, if it reads a 1 the byte is determined as a status byte while a data byte is a 0.
Channel messages are composed of status bytes that are followed by a data byte. Because data bytes start with a 0, there are 128 possible values to each channel, and each channel is one sound or 'MIDI note'
Sometimes channels contain another data byte, this stores information on how loud the sound is, a higher number is played louder.
For example:
MIDI Channel: 10010000 00111100 01110010
Hexadecimal conversion: 90 3C 72
So, status byte setting MIDI channel for data byte 3C (the 60th note) with a volume of 89.6% of maximum.
There is tons about MIDI files and programming, albeit a bit outdated... but I think it fits what you are looking for. I remember years ago a program that would make music from mathematical equations but it's name is lost to me... give a look though I'm sure you can dig up something =)
Hope this helps
EDIT: I found a MIDI key chart to help with understanding number to frequency.
Code: Select all
http://ftp.ec.vanderbilt.edu/computermusic/musc216site/midikeys.html
( that would sound kinda alien language to me 
)
