Posted by aniramca on 03/26/07 12:31

On Mar 26, 1:47 am, "Barry Graham" <btgra...@tpg.com.au> wrote:
> <anira...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1174881757.404156.165890@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
>
> > On Mar 25, 10:19 pm, Laurence Payne <lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom>
> > wrote:
> >I still wonder, despite
> > of the 30 years or more of the midi invention, that they managed to
> > package the sound of an instrument (such as piano or other
> > instruments) into those tiny storage file.
>
> You're still missing the point.
> There are NO SOUNDS in a MIDI file.
> It just contains instructions that are sent to a sound device that simulates
> the instrument sounds.
>
> -------------------------------------
> Barry Graham
> Melbourne, Australia

Thanks. I now understand that midi appears to be just a "box of
instruction" , and there is no sound in it. Is this then similar to
vidoe avi file (MPEG4)? Somebody also indicated in another newsgroup
that avi file is just a container with instruction on how to put
together the sound portion and the video portion.
However, how come does the instruction in an avi file end up being so
large... example a 5 minutes video ends up to about 60 MB file? One
can always argue that the instruction in avi is much more complex than
midi, therefore larger file. Why is there so much larger file?
Basically going back to midi... if midi can created a 15 min
instruction to piano music in 70 kB, why "instruction" of avi files
almost 1000 times more? Just curious

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