MIDI Capability Inquiry Specification

US MIDI Manufacturers Association releases MIDI-CI Specification 21/06/18

The MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) has released the MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) specification that was adopted by the organization at the 2018 Winter NAMM show. It is available for download here.

MIDI-CI enables 3 main areas of new functionality: Profile Configuration, Property Exchange, and Protocol Negotiation. MIDI-CI itself does not define these new features, just the way to negotiate them. Documents defining specific profiles, specific properties and values, and a new industry standard protocol are expected from the MMA during 2018.

About Profile Configuration

Profiles are defined sets of rules for how a MIDI device sends or responds to specific MIDI messages to achieve a specific purpose or suit a specific application. Profiles make products easier to configure and provide better interoperability.

About Property Exchange

Property Exchange (PE) messages can get and set device properties including but not limited to product name, configuration settings, controller names, controller values, patch names and other meta data, etc.

About Protocol Negotiation

MIDI-CI defines a method for two devices to negotiate to use a future industry standard "Next Generation" MMA/AMEI protocol that is planned as an extension of MIDI 1.0 with high priority given to translation to/from MIDI 1.0 messages. The new protocol will enable new devices that have more Channels, higher resolution Controllers, and Per-Note Controllers, among other new features.

To download the complete MIDI-CI specification and for more details on MIDI-CI, join the MIDI Association, the global community of people who work, play, and create with MIDI.

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