[linux-audio-dev] Midi port latency

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Subject: [linux-audio-dev] Midi port latency
From: John Littler (linuxmusic_AT_crosswinds.net)
Date: Thu Apr 20 2000 - 06:22:20 EEST


Hi,
Recently I was pulled up for suggesting to someone
that the midi/joystick port was a viable option - the
argument being that that port was too slow. My initial
reaction was "fool!" but under some circumstances there
could be something to it I guess.
The first main point was that the MIDI protocol speed is
31.25kbs regardless of where it's operating but the second
is more interesting ... of latencies introduced by event
queueing at the joystick port, which are said to be
avoided or lessened by using a parallel port. (Excuse
me for stating at least some of the obvious here - I'm
trying to summarise in an inteligible form :)
Intuitively that seems right, but what are the latencies
and at what stage is a port shift desirable? (Benno, have
you tested any of this kind of thing?).
Other questions might be related to total system latencies,
ie a M$ system would presumably have to shift to parallel
way earlier than say, BeOS, or low-latency Linux to get
the same results.
Just to top this off, after finding evidence of the
conventional wisdom of using parallel all over the place, I
asked a generally very well informed and equiped electronic
musician about this and his reaction was something along the
lines of ... latencies are large anyway, the parallel stuff
is a waste of time and money. (He sells the stuff as well!).
Sometimes life is confusing :)
Cheers
John

-- 

http://linuxmusic.cjb.net pgp public key @ http://www.crosswinds.net/~linuxmusic/pubring.html


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