BLE-MIDI
More info
- Owner
- MIDI Manufacturers Association
- Released
- 2015
- Type
- Protocol
MIDI over Bluetooth Low Energy: wireless keyboards and controllers that talk to a phone or laptop without a cable, and without flattening the battery in an evening.
Apple introduced it in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite in 2014, and the MIDI Manufacturers Association adopted it as an official specification the following year. MIDI bytes travel in a GATT characteristic, and each packet carries a millisecond timestamp so the receiver can rebuild the relative timing even when the radio link bunches messages together.
Bandwidth is the least of its problems; latency is the biggest. BLE only moves data at fixed connection intervals, typically 7.5–15 ms, and plenty of devices negotiate longer ones to save power. That's fine for comping chords. Finger-drumming on a pad controller is another matter, which is why most wireless controllers still have a USB port.