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black midi

Black Midi

Japan · 2010s
IntenseEpicDarkHappySentimentalDreamy

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Description

Black MIDI is an internet-born style of arranging in which composers pack hundreds of thousands to millions of MIDI note events into a single piece, producing piano-roll visuals that look nearly solid black and audio textures that range from shimmering swarms to overwhelming walls of sound.

It emerged from otaku/game-music and anime cover communities, first gaining traction on Japanese platforms before spreading globally. Although the note density is extreme, black MIDI arrangements typically preserve a recognizable melody, then surround it with rapid ostinati, dense arpeggios, massive cluster chords, hyperactive drum programming, and wide dynamic/tempo automation. Pieces are designed primarily for virtual performance and visualizers (e.g., Synthesia/Piano From Above), showcasing computational and arranging virtuosity rather than traditional live playability.

The aesthetic blends the harmonic/melodic DNA of the source tunes (often J-pop, anime, and video-game music) with the intensity and speed of breakcore/speedcore and the precision of classical piano transcription—turning the MIDI format itself into a spectacle.

History

Origins (late 2000s–early 2010s)

Black MIDI took shape on Japanese video platforms (notably Nico Nico Douga) where creators began arranging anime and game themes into impossibly dense MIDI piano-rolls. Iconic melodies (e.g., Touhou arrangements) were common source material. The name “black MIDI” refers to the piano roll turning visually black from note density.

Tools, Techniques, and the Visual Aesthetic

Early creators leaned on MIDI sequencers and playback/visualization tools like Synthesia and Piano From Above to display note data in real time. Limitations of consumer hardware became part of the art—lag, frame drops, and shader overloads were embraced as performative spectacle. Arrangers developed techniques for layering arpeggios, cluster chords, GM percussion ‘spam,’ and rapid controller automation while keeping the lead melody intelligible.

Globalization and Community (mid–late 2010s)

By the 2010s, the practice spread to YouTube and later Bilibili, forming a global community of “blackers.” Collectives (e.g., the Black MIDI Team) and high-profile channels popularized the style, staging friendly “note count” one‑upmanship, technical tutorials, and themed compilations. Western creators joined the scene, and the repertoire diversified beyond Touhou/anime to include pop, eurobeat, game OSTs, and original works.

Maturation and Cultural Footprint (late 2010s–present)

Creators refined musical pacing, dynamics, and sectional design so pieces could breathe despite extreme density. The style cross-pollinated with YTPMV/editing cultures and influenced meme‑piano trends (e.g., virtuosic ‘impossible’ arrangements). Today black MIDI persists as a niche internet artform: part transcription, part sound design, part visual performance—pushing the MIDI standard and consumer PCs to their limits.

How to make a track in this genre

Setup and Source Material
•   Choose a catchy, well-known melody (anime OP/ED, video-game theme, J-pop hook) or write a short original motif that can withstand heavy ornamentation. •   Use a DAW/MIDI editor with a strong piano roll (e.g., FL Studio, REAPER, Sekaiju) and a visualizer (Synthesia or Piano From Above) for showcase renders. •   Decide on playback sound: a GM soundfont (e.g., SC-55/Arachno) for classic black-MIDI timbres, or layered VSTs for modern sheen.
Core Techniques
•   Keep the lead melody clear: separate it by register, velocity, panning, or timbre; avoid masking it with equally bright textures. •   Build density around the melody using rapid arpeggios (1/32–1/128), tremolos, parallel thirds/sixths, and rolling cluster chords that sweep across octaves. •   Use GM drum kits for rhythmic ‘particle’ textures—hi-hats, snaps, tom rolls, and FX hits can create impressive motion without muddying harmony. •   Sculpt macro‑form with peaks and valleys: alternate ‘black’ sections with sparser interludes, creating contrast and avoiding fatigue. •   Automate tempo, volume (CC7), pan (CC10), expression (CC11), and pitch bend for swells, call‑and‑response across the stereo field, and dramatic drops.
Arranging and Performance Considerations
•   Register management is crucial: give bass lines space; push dense arpeggios to upper octaves; keep midrange less congested. •   Limit simultaneous polyphony per channel to what viewers’ machines can handle; split parts across multiple tracks to reduce single‑channel overload. •   Consider ‘visual orchestration’: stagger note entries to generate cascading patterns that read impressively in the piano roll. •   Render in stems if needed (e.g., separate drums, melody, textures) and recombine in a video editor for stable frame rates.
Finishing Touches
•   Add brief ‘breathing’ bars or cadential figures so the piece feels composed, not just maximized. •   Test on multiple systems/players; adjust velocities/EQs to avoid clipping or harshness at high densities. •   Produce a clean visual: choose contrasting key colors, controlled zoom, and readable FPS so the audience can appreciate the density and motion.

Top albums

Potential
Potential
Sunik Kim
Formenverwandler
Formenverwandler
Sunik Kim
Rush Collection
Rush Collection
Sheet Music Boss
Midi Machine Music
Midi Machine Music
Buttress O'Kneel
Sheet Music Boss Subscriber Specials, Vol. 1
Sheet Music Boss Subscriber Specials, Vol. 1
Sheet Music Boss
The Rolling Stones “Hackney Diamonds”
The Rolling Stones “Hackney Diamonds”
Zygmunt Burzliwy

Main artists

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Influenced by
Chiptune
Chiptune (also called chip music or 8-bit music) is a style of electronic music created with, or emulating, the programmable sound generator (PSG) and FM chips found in vintage game consoles and home computers such as the NES/Famicom, Game Boy, Commodore 64 (SID), Amiga, Atari ST, and others. The sound palette is defined by simple waveforms (square/pulse, triangle, saw, noise), rapid arpeggios that imply chords on limited channels, pitch bends, duty-cycle modulation, and crunchy noise percussion. These constraints lend chiptune its bright, percussive, and highly melodic character, often evoking early video-game aesthetics. While originally utilitarian—music for games and computer demos—the approach evolved into a standalone art form. Contemporary chiptune spans pure hardware-authentic tracks and hybrid productions that blend chip timbres with modern synthesis, drums, vocals, and mixing techniques.
Breakcore
Breakcore is a high-intensity electronic music genre built around hyper-edited breakbeats, extreme dynamics, and a deliberately transgressive, collage-like approach to sampling. It prioritizes rhythmic complexity, abrupt structural shifts, and heavy sound design over smooth continuity. Typical tempos range from 160 to 220 BPM (and beyond), with the Amen break, Think break, and other classic breakbeats chopped into micro-fragments, re-sequenced, and processed with distortion, compression, and glitch edits. The palette freely fuses elements from jungle and drum and bass with gabber kicks, industrial noise, classical or choral snippets, ragga vocals, metal guitar samples, and odd-meter patterns. More than a single “sound,” breakcore is a methodology: confrontational energy, maximalist editing, and anti-formalist structures that often subvert dance-music expectations. It thrives in DIY scenes, warehouse parties, and netlabel cultures, where forward-pushing experimentation and boundary-blurring sampling are central values.
Speedcore
Speedcore is an extreme offshoot of hardcore techno and gabber characterized by extremely high tempos, typically 240–350 BPM and often far beyond. Its core is a relentlessly driving 4/4 kick, heavily distorted and clipped into a percussive bass-tone that dominates the spectrum. The style emphasizes aggression and intensity over melody or harmony, drawing on industrial sound design, harsh noise textures, and horror-tinged sampling. Although many tracks are dark and abrasive, some scenes (especially in Japan’s j-core community) blend speedcore tempos with bright, anthemic leads and pop-cultural sampling. Speedcore is both a club style and a studio-centric craft: producers sculpt the kick drum as the central instrument, layering saturation, compression, EQ, and pitch envelopes to achieve the trademark pounding continuum.
Classical
Classical music is the notated art-music tradition of Europe and its global descendants, characterized by durable forms, carefully codified harmony and counterpoint, and a literate score-based practice. The term “classical” can refer broadly to the entire Western art-music lineage from the Medieval era to today, not just the Classical period (c. 1750s–1820s). It privileges long-form structures (such as symphonies, sonatas, concertos, masses, and operas), functional or modal harmony, thematic development, and timbral nuance across ensembles ranging from solo instruments to full orchestras and choirs. Across centuries, the style evolved from chant and modal polyphony to tonal harmony, and later to post-tonal idioms, while maintaining a shared emphasis on written notation, performance practice, and craft.
Romantic Classical
Romantic classical is the 19th‑century phase of Western art music that prioritizes individual expression, expanded harmony, poetic narrative, and coloristic orchestration. Compared with the balance and restraint of the Classical period, Romantic music embraces chromaticism, adventurous modulation, extreme dynamics, and richer timbres. It elevates subjectivity and imagination, often through programmatic works that depict stories, landscapes, or emotions, and through intimate forms such as the Lied and character piece. The orchestra grows dramatically (trombones, tuba, expanded winds, harp, larger percussion), the piano becomes a virtuoso vehicle, and new concepts like thematic transformation and leitmotif link music to literary and dramatic ideas.
Eurobeat
Eurobeat is a high-tempo, hook-driven form of European dance music that emerged in Italy in the late 1980s and was developed primarily for the Japanese market in the 1990s. It is characterized by four-on-the-floor rhythms around 150–160 BPM, bright supersaw leads, dramatic chord progressions in minor keys, and anthemic, often English-language choruses. Unlike Eurodance, Eurobeat leans heavily on Italo-disco and Hi-NRG aesthetics, with dense layers of synths, punchy drum programming, and soaring toplines sung by a roster of Italian session vocalists under multiple aliases. The style became tightly linked to Japan through the long-running Super Eurobeat compilations, Para Para club culture, and pop-cultural placements (notably the Initial D franchise).
Eurodance
Eurodance is a high-energy, club-oriented pop style that emerged in Europe in the early 1990s. It is characterized by a strong four-on-the-floor kick, catchy synth hooks, prominent piano riffs, and a blend of sung choruses (often female) with rap verses (often male). The style typically runs between 128–145 BPM, favors simple, anthemic chord progressions, and emphasizes uplifting, motivational, or romantic lyrics delivered in English for international appeal. Production commonly features staccato house pianos, bright saw-lead melodies, choir/strings pads, and tight drum-machine patterns with offbeat open hi-hats. The result is hook-driven dance-pop designed for maximum radio and dancefloor impact.
J-Pop
J-pop (Japanese pop) is a broad umbrella for mainstream Japanese popular music that blends Western pop/rock, dance, and R&B with distinctly Japanese songwriting, vocal delivery, and industry practices. It is characterized by strong hooks, polished production, bright synths and guitars, frequent key changes and modulatory bridges, and chorus-first or chorus-centric structures. J-pop spans idol groups, singer-songwriters, band-oriented pop-rock, electronic dance-pop, and R&B ballads, while remaining closely tied to television, advertising, video games, and anime tie-ins (anisong).
Electronic
Electronic is a broad umbrella genre defined by the primary use of electronically generated or electronically processed sound. It encompasses music made with synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, computers, and studio/tape techniques, as well as electroacoustic manipulation of recorded or synthetic sources. The genre ranges from academic and experimental traditions to popular and dance-oriented forms. While its sonic palette is rooted in electricity and circuitry, its aesthetics span minimal and textural explorations, structured song forms, and beat-driven club permutations. Electronic emphasizes sound design, timbre, and studio-as-instrument practices as much as melody and harmony.
Trance
Trance is a form of electronic dance music characterized by steady four-on-the-floor beats, long build‑ups and breakdowns, and euphoric, melodic progressions designed to induce a hypnotic or “trance‑like” state. Typical tempos range from about 130 to 142 BPM, with arrangements often stretching 7–10 minutes to allow DJs room for tension, release, and seamless mixing. The sound palette emphasizes shimmering pads, arpeggiated synth motifs, supersaw leads, and wide, reverberant spaces. Harmonically, trance tends to favor minor keys, modal mixture, and extended suspense before cathartic drops. Production hallmarks include sidechain compression (“pumping”), off‑beat open hi‑hats, rolling basslines, and lush delay/reverb tails. While largely instrumental, a major branch—vocal trance—features lyrical toplines and pop‑leaning structures without losing its club‑centric dynamics.
Has influenced
Ytpmv
YTPMV (YouTube Poop Music Video) is an online remix microgenre in which creators transform spoken or non-musical source material into rhythmic, pitched music through heavy sampling, pitch-correction, chopping, and time-stretching. It typically pairs hyperactive video editing with tightly quantized, melody-focused audio made from syllables, phonemes, sound effects, and short instrumental fragments pulled from TV shows, games, commercials, and internet ephemera. The result sits between plunderphonics, sound collage, and breakcore, but with a distinct meme-native sense of humor and visual pacing. While rooted in YouTube Poop’s sentence-mixing culture, YTPMV emphasizes musicality: samples are tuned to scales, mapped to MIDI, arranged into chord progressions, and driven by energetic drums. Parallel Japanese communities (MAD/OTOMAD on Nico Nico Douga) cross-pollinated techniques and aesthetics, giving YTPMV its hallmark blend of frantic edits, catchy motifs, and pop-culture nostalgia.
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