Virtual MIDI ports (many devices create these automatically, but some programs do not).In brief, to work with MIDI you need two things at a minimum: I am also focusing on free setup, so the instructions on this page do not involve spending money to get things working. Here I will try to give a comprehensive overview of what you need to work with MIDI on Mac, particularly for interactive MIDI applications. Some older versions like 10.10 and 10.9 are essentially the same where MIDI is concerned, but your millage may vary if you have a vastly older OS versions (namely those older than 10.6).Īlthough a basic MIDI setup on Mac OS X is typically easier than on Windows (to go beyond the default Windows synth anyway), it still requires some work. Note: this page describes setup for OS X 10.11-10.14. Reference to a new, easy-to-use software MIDI keyboard (MidiKeys) has been added. Update 13-Sept-2019: the information in this post (originally from Sept 2016) is still relevant for OSX 10.14.
