MIDI Velocity
The strike-strength value of a MIDI note; the sound source decides what it becomes
Related
Velocity is the strike-strength value carried in a MIDI note message, ranging from 0 to 127. A note-on message carries one velocity and a note-off message carries a release velocity; a note-on with velocity 0 usually means note-off.
It is not volume itself but an input value. A sound source may map it to amplitude, filter cutoff, sample-layer selection or envelope speed, so the same value behaves differently on a piano and on a string patch. MIDI 2.0 extends velocity to 16 bits.
The usual mistake is to equate velocity with volume. Drawing a rising and falling velocity curve only changes the input value; if the sound source has no velocity layers, the result barely changes. To hear the difference, choose a sound source and patch that respond to it.
Related → MIDI Protocol
Sources
- MIDI 力度值的 7 位范围、note on/off 语义与 MIDI 2.0 的扩展，参 MIDI 1.0 Specification 与 MIDI 2.0 Specification（MMA）；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.