MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments and related audio devices for playing and recording music. The specification originates in a paper published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood of Sequential Circuits at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City titled Universal Synthesizer Interface. A single MIDI link through a MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of information, each of which can be routed to a separate device or instrument; this could be sixteen different digital instruments, for example. MIDI carries event messages, data that specify the instructions for music, including a note's notation, velocity, panning to the right or left of stereo, clock signals; when a musician plays a MIDI instrument, all of the key presses, button presses, knob turns and slider changes are converted into MIDI data. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier.

MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back. A file format that stores and exchanges the data is defined. Advantages of MIDI include small file size, ease of modification and manipulation and a wide choice of electronic instruments and synthesizer or digitally-sampled sounds. A MIDI recording of a performance on a keyboard could sound like a piano or other keyboard instrument. A MIDI recording is not an audio signal, as with a sound recording made with a microphone. Prior to the development of MIDI, electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers could not communicate with each other; this meant that a musician could not, for example, plug a Roland keyboard into a Yamaha synthesizer module. With MIDI, any MIDI-compatible keyboard can be connected to any other MIDI-compatible sequencer, sound module, drum machine, synthesizer, or computer if they are made by different manufacturers. MIDI technology was standardized in 1983 by a panel of music industry representatives, is maintained by the MIDI Manufacturers Association.

All official MIDI standards are jointly developed and published by the MMA in Los Angeles, the MIDI Committee of the Association of Musical Electronics Industry in Tokyo. In 2016, the MMA established the MIDI Association to support a global community of people who work, play, or create with MIDI. In the early 1980s, there was no standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments manufactured by different companies. Manufacturers had their own proprietary standards to synchronize instruments, such as CV/gate and Digital Control Bus. Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi felt the lack of standardization was limiting the growth of the electronic music industry. In June 1981, he proposed developing a standard to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim, who had developed his own propriety interface, the Oberheim System. Kakehashi felt the system was too cumbersome, spoke to Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith about creating a simpler, cheaper alternative. While Smith discussed the concept with American companies, Kakehashi discussed it with Japanese companies Yamaha and Kawai.

Representatives from all companies met to discuss the idea in October. Only Sequential Circuits and the Japanese companies were interested. Using Roland's DCB as a basis and Sequential Circuits engineer Chet Wood devised a universal synthesizer interface to allow communication between equipment from different manufacturers. Smith and Wood proposed this standard in a paper titled Universal Synthesizer Interface at the Audio Engineering Society show in October 1981; the standard was discussed and modified by representatives of Roland, Korg and Sequential Circuits. Kakehashi favored the name Universal Musical Interface, pronounced you-me, but Smith felt this was "a little corny". However, he liked the use of "instrument" instead of "synthesizer", proposed the name Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Moog Music founder Robert Moog announced MIDI in the October 1982 issue of Keyboard. At the 1983 Winter NAMM Show, Smith demonstrated a MIDI connection between Prophet 600 and Roland JP-6 synthesizers.

The MIDI specification was published in August 1983. The MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith, who received Technical Grammy Awards in 2013 for their work. In 1982, the first instruments were released with MIDI, the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Prophet 600. In 1983, the first MIDI drum machine, the Roland TR-909, the first MIDI sequencer, the Roland MSQ-700 were released; the first computer to support MIDI, the NEC PC-88 and PC-98, was released in 1982. MIDI's appeal was limited to professional musicians and record producers who wanted to use electronic instruments in the production of popular music; the standard allowed different instruments to communicate with each other and with computers, this spurred a rapid expansion of the sales and production of electronic instruments and music software. This interoperability allowed one device to be controlled from another, which reduced the amount of hardware musicians needed

Jonny Walker is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Wigan Warriors in the Super League competition, the Blackpool Panthers and the Batley Bulldogs, as a second-row. Walker started the 2010 season on a dual registration loan from Wigan Warriors to Blackpool Panthers, but only made one appearance for them before being recalled by Wigan Warriors to make his début in the home defeat by Harlequins, he made no further appearances for Wigan, joined Barrow Raiders in 2011 on another dual registration deal. He signed for Batley Bulldogs in 2012. Walker was forced to retire after failing to recover from a series of head injuries suffered during his first season at Batley. Search for "Jonny Walker" at wiganwarriors.com Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org Statistics at wigan.rlfans.com Profile at batleybulldogs.co.uk

Malin Sofia Katarina Berggren is a Swedish singer-songwriter, best known as a former member of the pop music band Ace of Base. Having been interested and involved in music since her childhood, she formed the band in 1987, along with her sister Jenny, her brother Jonas and their friend Ulf Ekberg. Before forming Ace of Base, Malin sang in her church's choir, she was born in Sweden. When Ace of Base was signed to Danish label Mega Records in 1990, Malin, or Linn as she became known, chose to put her teaching career on hold, but while her sister Jenny has stated she always wanted to be a singer, Linn has never said anything similar. On the contrary, in 1997 Linn said: "I wanted to sing. Linn's vocal range is contralto as she is recognised by her distinguishable vibrato and expressive unique voice. During the promotion for Ace of Base's first album, Linn was the principal lead vocalist for the majority of the singles and was the focus in the videos, although on some singles and album tracks Jenny and Linn shared leads.

Linn had a somewhat minor role in the composition of Happy Nation and The Sign, only having co-writing credits on one track on a re-release of the former. She was influential in the development of "All That She Wants", demanding that the track be changed from major key to minor. In 1994, a German girl invaded the Berggren family home. Linn was not present; this incident made a large impact on Linn. During the release of the group's second album, The Bridge, the focus in both vocals and media became more equal with her younger sister, Jenny. Linn had a larger role in the composition of The Bridge and wrote and produced several songs for the album. Following the completion of the album, it was reported that Linn developed unspecified recurrent vocal problems. Beginning in late 1995, Linn began to express discomfort in how successful the band had become, explaining in an interview "this business, I don't want to be in it for too long." She remarked in a 1996 interview: "All this wasn't my plan. For me, this is too big with the success in America.

It doesn't look like it. We have to push forward, but I just can't, I want to push backwards." She explained her fear of flying, remarking "when the plane goes down, my heart skips a beat and I can't breathe, speak or move." The band went on 179 flights for music promotion in 1995. In the same interview, she alluded to her plans for the future: "I've been thinking about traveling by train or car and doing little promotion." In the midst of promotion in Asia for The Bridge in the spring of 1996, Linn left prematurely, leaving the rest of the band members to continue in her absence. Her final performance with the band as a frontwoman was of "Beautiful Life" at the World Music Awards in May 1996. In 1997, it was reported that Linn would venture into a solo project, releasing the song "Lapponia", submitted for inclusion on The Bridge and for Flowers; the song was to be accompanied by a documentary about Samar culture. Despite this, the song never received an official release. Beginning in 1997, Linn appeared at her band's concerts only to perform in the background behind keyboards.

In Linn's last personal television interview, from 1997, she stated her wish to "try what Jenny has done" by no longer being the focus of the band. In April 1997, the band performed "Ravine" at the World Music Awards with Linn miming keyboard playing in the far background of the stage. Claes Cornelius at Mega Records said it was because she did not wish to wear the heavy make-up the performance would have required. In July 1997, the group performed a concert for Princess Victoria's 20th birthday. Linn performed keyboards in the background for most of the concert, but performed a live a cappella song in the foreground prior to the main show; that same year, Both Jenny and Linn appeared at the Swedish Grammis as presenters for the "best song" award. The first official press photos released for the Flowers / Cruel Summer albums, released on 21 March 1998, show Linn in equal or greater focus than that of her bandmates. However, many future promotional materials for the albums, as well as those used in the album booklets, contain blurred, distinctly unhappy photographs of her.

The Flowers album in particular uses the infamous'blue lines' photograph, where Linn's unhappy image is bizarrely hidden behind the booklet's blue line design. According to Jonas, Clive Davis's insistence that Linn record "Everytime It Rains" for the Cruel Summer album in 1998 was "the tipping point" for Linn's withdrawal from the band and that it "was the worst thing for her". Jenny had recorded a version of the song, but Arista Records was unhappy with this version and pressed the band for Linn to record a version featuring only her vocals. Upon the release of the albums, Linn's vocal contributions were reduced in comparison to the group's previous releases. Beginning with "Life is a Flower", Linn appearance in the band's music videos became much less than it had been in previous videos, she no longer mimed her vocal parts in the videos and her screen time was drastically shortened. Her image in the videos became at times blurred or nonexistent; that year, Linn walked off the set of the "Cruel Summer" music video in Rome whilst filming.

Director Nigel Dick revealed she would not have appeared at all, were it not for his insistence. Linn infrequently took part in group interviews w