MIDI single-handledly enabled more people than ever to produce music. Back in 1990, my dad setup a studio with a 486 and produced CDs for a lot of independent artists around our city that would never had it recorded otherwise.<p>Also, it's amazing how it turned into a standard and is still well supported by all applications. My dad can still open his early works and remaster using improved, true-to-life instruments that make it sound like live recordings.
When I first got into MIDI programming, I really enjoyed discovering the manufacturer IDs in the System Exclusive message byte block:<p><a href="http://www.blitter.com/~russtopia/MIDI/~jglatt/tech/midispec/id.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.blitter.com/~russtopia/MIDI/~jglatt/tech/midispec...</a><p>It's like a 1970's and 80's time-capsule.
Not only is Dave Smith a legend historically†, but he's back in the game these days with his new‡ company "Dave Smith Instruments" (one of the few (only?) companies currently making real, affordable, analog polysynths):<p><a href="http://davesmithinstruments.com/" rel="nofollow">http://davesmithinstruments.com/</a><p>† Not just for midi. His Prophet 5 was a seminal, ground-breaking synth (and super popular; it can be heard all over music of the 1980s).<p>‡ Well, new-ish, starting with the wonderful "Evolver" in 2002.