Category: System Realtime
Purpose
Some master device that controls sequence playback sends this timing message to keep a slave device in sync with the master. A MIDI Tick message is sent at regular intervals of one message every 10 milliseconds.
Status
0xF9
Data
None
Errata
While a master device's "clock" is playing back, it will send a continuous stream of MIDI Tick events at a rate of one per every 10 milliseconds.
A slave device might receive (from a master device) a Song Select message to cue a specific song to play (out of several songs), a Song Position Pointer message to cue that song to start on a particular beat, a MIDI Continue in order to start playback from that beat, periodic MIDI Ticks in order to keep the playback in sync with the master, and eventually a MIDI Stop to halt playback. See Syncing Sequence Playback.