Joshua Guy wrote: Does anyone really use MIDI? Actually, among our ventures is a 48 track recording studio, and MIDI is huge in the studio biz. It's used to automation outboard gear in addition to playing music. Nothing's going to sound like much over a Soundblaster, but plug it into a $3000 sound module and you're kickin'. My Roland JV2080 module has an orchestral card that has absolutely killer French horns (one of the reasons I bought it). Another use of MIDI in the real world is bar bands. In the US, there's a lot of work for "MIDI singles", i.e. one person bands. Typcially, the MIDI files are used for bass & drums and the musician plays guitar & sings. Regrettably, yet another example where technology put a couple of musicians out of work because bars would rather pay one person than three. I also have written a Windows / MFC DMX (standard protocol for concert lighting control) system to control my light rig for live band performances. It uses a MIDI file as the basis for time and then allows you to insert lighting events at, say, measure 42 on the upbeat of 3, in a visual manner. Drummer wears headphones to sync with a MIDI click track, and a complex light show just "happens" live. This frees the sound man & follow spot guys from having to run a lighting console as well. This also explains why there's 10,000 watts of concert lighting set up in my living room at the moment for testing... MIDI for computers, web pages, etc.? Cute and entertaining, yeah, but usually sounds less than stellar. However, all you musician / programmers, get fuzzy with MIDI and crank out some cool stuff that musicians can use in the real world. For recording and performing musicians, MIDI rocks. Chistopher Duncan Author - The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Apress)