What is MIDI, and how does it work in relation to an accordion?
MIDI stands for Music Instrument Digital Interface. This is a music industry standard language, used in most modern electronic instruments. Accordionists have used this technology since the mid 1980’s. Whenever a note is played on one MIDI instrument (the controller) a message is sent to another instrument or sound generator (the slave) to play the same note at the same time.To update a MIDI system you only need to change the sound generator. As the technology of synthesised sound is changing so quickly, electronic instruments rapidly become obsolete. However, a MIDI accordion can always upgrade to the latest in sound technology without having to change the accordion itself. This is because you only need to update the MIDI sound generator (the ‘slave’), not the MIDI accordion (the ‘controller’). This is a huge advantage over the older electronic (cordovox style) accordions, where the whole instrument needed upgrading and the old accordion devalued. Another advantage of the MIDI accordi
