Microsoft has announced the development of new Windows MIDI Services for Windows, revealing that all the current MIDI Services will be rewritten from scratch and made open-source. MIDI file formats are widely used in the music industry, as they contain instructions for musical instruments on how to play. The MIDI standard version 1.0 was first introduced in 1983, followed by the significant update to MIDI 2.0 in 2020, introducing various new features such as control change, inter-device communication, and USB connectivity.
The new Windows MIDI Services have been designed to support MIDI 2.0 while still being compatible with MIDI 1.0 (backward compatible with the original WinMM MIDI API 1.0). This new codebase runs on 64-bit operating systems across multiple CPU architectures, including Arm64.
In addition to the core Windows services, there is also a USB MIDI 2.0 Class Driver developed with the assistance of the AMEI (Association of Musical Electronics Industry of Japan), serving as a driver for MIDI devices connected via USB, supporting both MIDI 2.0 and MIDI 1.0 devices.
The new codebase has started its implementation in the Windows Insider Canary Channel (Build 27788). The entire Windows MIDI Services App SDK suite is now open-source, with the code available on GitHub.
TLDR: Microsoft rewrites Windows MIDI Services, transitioning to MIDI 2.0 while maintaining backward compatibility with MIDI 1.0, introducing new features and open-sourcing the Windows MIDI Services App SDK suite.
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