[linux-audio-dev] Rosegarden: All Notes OFF

[Chris Cannam]

On Wednesday 24 Nov 2004 22:06, Jens M Andreasen wrote:
> According to my oldish midi-spec, controller (decimal) 120 is
> undefined, so I was somewhat confused at first when I got it from
> Rosegarden.
>
> A bit of digging shows that it belongs to the (newish?) GS-spec, and
> means All-Sound-Off (as in 'killall -9')

Ah, that controller.

This is what happens when you rely on public interpretations of a 
proprietary spec.  Quite a few sources claim this controller _is_ in 
MIDI 1.0, and since most contemporary synths interpret it as expected 
(silencing all notes even if sustain is active), the matter wasn't ever 
really questioned.

Anyway, it turns out that besides some synths not understanding this 
controller at all, there are some that treat it the same as "all notes 
off" (i.e. not silencing sustained notes) and others that appear to 
interpret it as meaning they should shut up forever and never play 
another note.  So, recent Rosegarden CVS versions instead send "all 
notes off" and switch off any sustain explicitly.


Chris