Incoming links: SoundFont
Synthesizes MIDI input. vmpk +
aconnect + Advanced Linux Sound Architecture hello world: askubuntu.com/questions/34391/virtual-midi-piano-keyboard-setup/1298026#1298026Supports only very basic effects it seems: chorus effect and reverberation. The main way to add instruments to it is via SoundFont files.
In simple terms, represents keystrokes of a piano, but it can likely also represent other effects (TODO confirm: bend, vibrato, slides, attack strength)
Can contain multiple parallel tracks as seen from the Wikipedia example: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MIDI_sample.mid
You can see what it contains well with GUI music editor.
MIDI is fun. It is a basic high level representation of most instrumental music, including beats.
To actually listen to MIDI, you need a software synthesizer, which knows what sound to make for each note. One way to specify such instruments is the SoundFont file format.
Convert MIDI to more common standalone formats: