[LAU] Whysynth and MIDI channels

Fons Adriaensen fons at kokkinizita.net
Wed May 30 14:36:11 EDT 2007


On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 07:30:52PM +0200, Nick Copeland wrote:
> 
> >This sort of examples is complety useless and easily negated. When you
> >measure the size of some object, do you start from the 0 or the 1 on your
> >ruler ?
> >
> 
> Nice. Just put that in your manual and see if it makes sense - get your 
> ruler out and measure the number of channels?

It doesn't make any more sense than the 'maximum 10 items' example, but shows
that the opposite case where everyone agrees to start at zero also exists.
Which means that such examples are meaningless, and that was the point.

> how is a user really supposed to know that MIDI channels should be counted 
> from 1 or from 0? 

Did you read the conclusion at the end my post ? It said that most users
would expect to start at 1, Consequently it seems wise to start at 1.
Aeolus uses channel, bank and program numbers starting from 1. You don't
have to convince me. But please don't discredit a good idea (starting
from 1) by advocating it with arguments that don't hold.

> Why is that wrong? That would sound pretty much lilke a MIDI mixer 
> function, and why should that not be done by default?

Because in all but the simplest cases that is not what you want. If you
have 10 sources and 10 sinks, what is easier, setting up 10 connections
or working out which 90 to disconnect ? Is forcing a user to do N-1 dis-
connects each time he starts something new making his work easier ?
I want to be able to start an app and be sure it will not interfere
with what is already running. So it should not auto-whatever. If you
have ever driven a 40 kW PA system, or a broadcast transmitter you will
want the same. The price paid for this is minimal compared to the
potential havoc that's avoided.

Things that auto-connect can be dangerous. I nearly had a pair of very
expensive speakers destroyed by an app that connected itself and started
making 'desktop sounds' at full volume (for no good reason), while the
gain structure in my studio is set up for a very low average signal level. 

Think about this. Many midi devices will echo their input on the output.
What do you think will happen if you auto-connect everything ? It's not
just one loop - it's all possible loops.

-- 
FA

Follie! Follie! Delirio vano è questo !





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