Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: midi note numbers

On Thu, Mar 30, 2006 at 09:05:12PM +0200, Robert Epprecht wrote:
> "Paul Coccoli" <pcoccoli@email-addr-hidden> writes:
>
> > Just like how some apps use MIDI channels 0-15 and others 1-16.
> > Totally irritating.
>
> I was just thinking about this these days (as I started to write a
> simple midi editor for some of my gear). First I used 0-15, then
> I saw that all my midi related books and documents use 1-16 so I
> changed it, but now I see that I don't like it...

I think there used to be a draft of the MIDI spec around on the
internet that you could get (instead of paying the $50+ to get it from
the MIDI people). I printed it out, don't know where it is, and I
can't find the file now. Sorry.

I believe the standard actually specifies that the human readable
version of the channel numbers would be 1 based (1-16), even though
the binary version is 0-16. I thought that also applied to program
numbers, etc. But currently available online documentation says this
wasn't so.

If it was me, I'd display both the Channel numbers and the Patch /
Program change numbers as 1 based (1-16 and 1-128, respectively),
because I know my two synths (Roland and Ensoniq) agree with this.

Have you seen http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/tech/midispec.htm (a
rephrase of the info in the official MMA MIDI spec), or
http://www.gweep.net/~prefect/eng/reference/protocol/midispec.html
(seeps to be the same text)?

Also, there's this early one from the days before General Midi, that
MAY be what I was remembering as the draft spec.:

http://www.ibiblio.org/emusic-l/info-docs-FAQs/MIDI-doc/MIDI-Primer.txt

And, getting back to the original topic of note numbers there's this:
http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/table2.html
found in:
http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/doc.html

(I know I'm not the only one here who knows how to use google, but
thought I'd send the links as long as I already found them.)

--> Steve

-- 
Steve Wahl    steve@email-addr-hidden-ns.net
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