A MetaMessage is a MidiMessage that is not meaningful to
synthesizers, but that can be stored in a MIDI file and interpreted by a
sequencer program. (See the discussion in the MidiMessage class
description.) The Standard MIDI Files specification defines various types of
meta-events, such as sequence number, lyric, cue point, and set tempo. There
are also meta-events for such information as lyrics, copyrights, tempo
indications, time and key signatures, markers, etc. For more information, see
the Standard MIDI Files 1.0 specification, which is part of the Complete MIDI
1.0 Detailed Specification published by the MIDI Manufacturer's Association
(http://www.midi.org).
When data is being transported using MIDI wire protocol, a
ShortMessage with the status value 0xFF represents a system
reset message. In MIDI files, this same status value denotes a
MetaMessage. The types of meta-message are distinguished from each
other by the first byte that follows the status byte 0xFF. The
subsequent bytes are data bytes. As with system exclusive messages, there are
an arbitrary number of data bytes, depending on the type of
MetaMessage.
extends
MetaEventListener