#21

Yeah, I’m aware. I don’t mean that bastardization of the protocol, though. :wink: RTP-Midi and it’s variants have so many problems…

#22

Much of this could be done with another layer on top of OSC, one that mimics the functions of MIDI but with enhanced features. The question then becomes the extent to which this layer would be standardized. Maybe there are several nested standards. Or at least two: simple devices could support this basic functionality and just not respond to other OSC. More complex devices would respond to OSC in its full implementation.

Anyway, I see these proposals every 5-10 years, since the 1990’s, all the major players get involved and it never really goes anywhere.

I also think of getting beyond MIDI more generally, in terms of what it would take to get off the rigid time grid, and have some kind of variable or even interlocking event-based notion of musical time, and have this become expressible in a standard. And how to wrap this up so it’s intuitive for users. I’m fine with music “as is”, but am perpetually curious about these things. All this is already possible to some degree. But it’s not what is possible technically, it’s what kinds of uses occur most often, and standards do have an influence. The notion of musical time just seems very underdeveloped. Automatic tempo tracking is possible, so what do we do with it. How can we anchor events to other events; how do we make a malleable time base.

#23

MIDI has no time grid concept. It has the notion of “beat” in midi clock but technically speaking that can be varied widely even between actual “beats” and in fact the very lack of any timing data whatsoever with respect to note and control events is one of MIDIs two edged swords balancing total freeform nature with complete imprecision. Any update to MIDI would do well to actually incorporate precise timing into the format in a way that is suitable both for precise playback and competent real-time performance.

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#24

Yep, I know. The issue is that we have to look at the standard in how it is actually used, in and through the use cases we’ve all kind of converged upon, rather than only the letter of the standard. The standard is one part of an entire ecosystem. Standards don’t determine the ecosystem, but they do have an effect. Standards and constraints can actually create freedoms, they open up a space where it’s possible to think of new applications and hence actually end up diversifying what people do. The question is what higher level constructs beyond precise timing, all optional of course, can help intervene and push things in new and interesting directions.

#25

I mean, HDTV is already obsolete. I have a 5K monitor at home.

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#26

never a truer word - I was on a standards committee. One memorable meeting we spent the whole time talking about one single word in the standard…

I think the comments about MIDI over OSC are true - MIDI - you can literally just shove a wire in both ends, the manufacturer shoved a chip on the board - it genuinely is plug and play. I’ve rarely had to wonder why two devices wired one to the other can’t “see” each other like I’ve had to endless times with networking…

Some concept of 'time" in Midi would be really nice though - the clock stuff is pretty basic

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