[linux-audio-dev] a question re: the MIDI spec

[Dave Robillard]

On Fri, 2004-09-10 at 07:49, Martijn Sipkema wrote:
> >> [...] the USB specification. And it even appears like some vendors
> >> are (finally!) starting to follow suit:
> >>
> >>    http://midiman.com/products/en_us/KeystationPro88-main.html
> >>
> >>    - "USB class compliant-no drivers required for
> >>      Windows XP or Mac OS X"
> >
> > M-Audio started following suit only after they hung their engineers
> > with a USB cable and bought Evolution who had always made
> > class-compliant devices.
>  
> The problem here is that class compliant devices suffer bad timing
> because they use bulk transfers for MIDI data. The standard for
> MIDI over FireWire is much better.

Hmm.. I'm just about to drop $400 on a USB MIDI interface (Edirol
UM-880), so that's not something I want to hear!

Is the timing really that bad?  I don't even think a firewire 8x8
rackmount MIDI interface exists, so my options are kinda limited. :/

-DR-