Re: [linux-audio-dev] News about sequencers (not my own though!)

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] News about sequencers (not my own though!)
From: Fredrik (aeonek_AT_home.se)
Date: la tammi  22 2000 - 08:21:07 EST


> Using Ethernet (for example) as a transport, you could multiplex a
> nearly unlimited number of MIDI streams over a single cable, just
> like you can multiplex a nearly unlimited number of TCP streams over
> a single cable with Ethernet today. I already run MIDI over TCP over
> Ethernet in a multiplexed manner quite happily, using my little
> NetMIDI toys. I certainly wasn't proposing to have 256 actual MIDI
> cables going into a single synth!

I don't doubt that this system could be made to work, but it's not backwards-compatible. So why use MIDI? Even though you have found a way around most limitations with MIDI, i would prefer a new system.

> How do you do it today? MIDI does not provide any concept of a query
> and response, since it is a uni-directional protocol (like a pipe).
> For practical purposes, you trust that once you initialize something
> it stays that way until you change it again. If you don't
> initialize a channel to the patch you want, then it's your own fault
> if your piano comes out as a harmonica.

If you set a channel to piano, it will play a piano until you change it. If not, there's something wrong with the sequencer or synth. I never had a problem with this. But if you send your piano sequence over 10 channels/streams, how do you know wich channels to initialize?
 
> Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view),
> this is just plain false. If you read the standard, you'll see that
> CC's are designed to built up using several separate messages to
> send a single multibyte value. This is accomplished using the
> concept of set-and-hold, which is pretty pervasive in MIDI. Sadly,
> many synth vendors either don't understand this, or they just leave
> it out to cut costs.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the enlightenment.

    /Fredrik


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