MIDI Over Network: The Complete Guide for Live Production

Why Send MIDI Over a Network?#

USB MIDI cables have a hard limit: 5 meters. In professional live production — concerts, festivals, theatre, corporate events — your MIDI controller is rarely within arm's reach of the machine it needs to control. The traditional workaround is active USB extenders, but these introduce reliability issues, signal degradation, and a single point of failure.

MIDI over network solves this by transporting MIDI messages as network packets over standard Ethernet infrastructure. Your controller plugs into a host device (like a Raspberry Pi), which broadcasts MIDI data across the local network. Client machines anywhere on that network receive the data through virtual MIDI devices that look identical to the physical controller.

The benefits go far beyond cable length:

• Distance: Any Ethernet reach — across a venue, between floors, backstage to FOH
• Multiple receivers: One controller can feed multiple machines simultaneously
• Redundancy: Network infrastructure enables failover that USB simply can't provide
• Integration: Network MIDI can coexist with other protocols like OSC, Dante, and NDI

How MIDI Over Network Works#

At its core, MIDI over network involves three stages:

1. Capture#

A host device reads MIDI from a physical controller via USB (or DIN-5). On Linux and Raspberry Pi, this uses the ALSA sequencer subsystem. On macOS, CoreMIDI. On Windows, the Windows MIDI Services API or WinMM.

2. Transport#

The captured MIDI messages are packaged into network packets and sent across the LAN. This is where protocol choices matter:

• UDP unicast: One-to-one, simple but doesn't scale
• UDP multicast: One-to-many, efficient for multiple receivers (what MIDInet uses)
• TCP: Reliable but adds latency from acknowledgments and retransmission

For real-time MIDI, UDP multicast is the clear winner. It delivers sub-millisecond network transit with zero overhead per additional receiver.

3. Virtual Device Creation#

On each receiving machine, a virtual MIDI device is created that mirrors the physical controller. Applications like Resolume Arena, Ableton Live, or Bitfocus Companion see this virtual device as if the controller were plugged in directly — same name, same port count, same identity.

Protocol Comparison#

Latency: What Actually Matters#

The perceptible threshold for MIDI latency in live performance is approximately 15 milliseconds. Above this, performers begin to feel a disconnect between their physical action and the response.

A well-designed MIDI-over-network system contributes very little to the total latency chain:

• USB read: ~1ms (polling interval)
• Network transit: under 1ms (on a local gigabit network)
• Virtual device write: ~1ms
• Application processing: 1-5ms (varies by software)

MIDInet achieves under 5ms end-to-end from USB read to virtual device output — well under the perceptible threshold.

Redundancy: The Professional Difference#

In professional AV, single points of failure are unacceptable. A dropped MIDI connection during a live show means a performer loses control — no visual transitions, no audio changes, no show control triggers.

MIDInet introduces dual-stream redundancy inspired by Dante and SMPTE ST 2022-7:

• Two host devices broadcast simultaneously on separate multicast groups
• Client machines monitor both streams via heartbeat packets (every 3ms)
• If the primary host fails (3 missed heartbeats = 9ms), clients switch to the standby
• Total failover time: ~10ms — imperceptible to performers and audience

This is the same architectural pattern used in professional audio networking, applied to MIDI for the first time.

Getting Started#

The fastest way to try MIDI over network is with MIDInet:

1. Provision a Raspberry Pi as your MIDI host (one-command installer)
2. Connect your MIDI controller via USB
3. Install the client on your macOS, Windows, or Linux machine
4. Open your application — your controller appears as a virtual MIDI device

Zero network configuration required. mDNS discovery handles everything automatically.

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Ready to eliminate USB cable limitations from your live production workflow? Download MIDInet and get running in minutes.