Windows 11 finally hits right note: MIDI 2.0 support arrives

Microsoft has finally ushered in the era of MIDI 2.0 for Windows 11, more than a year after first teasing the functionality for Windows Insiders.

In addition to a raft of enhancements, Microsoft has addressed several key user pain points in this release: allowing multiple applications to use the same MIDI device and port simultaneously, and permitting users to control the names assigned to MIDI ports.

MIDI 1.0 dates back to 1983, and official support appeared with Windows 3.1, although extensions were available in earlier versions. MIDI 2.0 dates to 2020, and, according to Microsoft, key updates to the protocol specification were later made to support better discovery and fallback.

At its core, it is a communication protocol to connect electronic musical instruments and computers.

Pete Brown, principal software engineer at Microsoft, has talked about the technology for years, and a preview arrived on February 5 ...