MIDI Marker meta message

The MIDI marker meta message marks a point in time for a MIDI sequence.

The marker can mark anything, such as the beginning of a new verse.

This message belongs to the category of MIDI meta messages. Since this is a meta message, it may exist in MIDI files, but it is never sent over MIDI ports to a MIDI device.

This message consists of a variable number of bytes of data. The first byte is the status byte and has a hexadecimal value of 0xFF, which shows that this is a meta message. The second byte is the meta message type 0x06 and shows that this is the marker meta message. The third byte carries the length of the text to follow in bytes. The remaining bytes carry the marker comment in ASCII text.

The following is an example of a MIDI marker meta message.

0xFF 0x06 0x05 0x56 0x65 0x72 0x73 0x65

The status byte 0xFF shows that this is a meta message. The second byte is the meta type 0x06 and shows that this is a marker meta message. The third byte is 5, which shows that the text to follow has five characters. The five characters are 0x56 0x65 0x72 0x73 0x65, which in ASCII translates to "Verse" (without the quotes).

See also:
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)