[LAU] Replacing/enhancing MIDI, and OSC

[Harry van Haaren]

There are two things to keep in mind here:
1. Are events handled sequentially in time?
2. How many events can be transmitted in a unit of time?

If events are handled sequentially in time, then it is not possible to
play a chord of multiple notes at _exactly_ the same time.

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Jonathan E. Brickman
<jeb at ponderworthy.com> wrote:
> 1.  Is MIDI-over-USB as constrained in timing, as MIDI-over-DIN?
No, the MIDI "cable" baud rate is 31250, while MIDI over USB runs at
112500. Its faster - but there are still limitations.

Regarding the above:
-Sequentially handled: yes
-Bandwidth: lots better than DIN-cable MIDI, but limited

> 2.  I had not heard of MIDI-over-OSC.

Yes - almost everything is possible with OSC - any form of data can be
passed around as a "blob" of binary data, timestamps are available to
be used for timing, and "bundles" can be used to have multiple events
be processed at exactly the same time.

Sequential handling? Yes - unless in a bundle.
Bandwidth: unlimited.

> 3.  Is JACK MIDI constrained in the low timing resolution of original MIDI, or is it more flexible?
JACK MIDI is sample accurate - and multiple events can be written on a
single audio frame (internally in JACK graph).
Sequentially: No - except on playback to hardware devices
Bandwidth: configurable (at compile time IIRC), but "lots".

> Others
ipMIDI:
Not much techie stats online available - http://www.nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html

rtpMIDI:
No details easily found on how it actually works -
http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/rtpmidi.html

Another list of MIDI over IP projects:
http://openmuse.org/transport/mip_oview.html


To sum up - JACK MIDI is awesome - its widely used, it is
sample-accurate within the JACK graph, and events can occur at exactly
the same times. With the QMidiNet project, broadcasting JACK MIDI over
the network is possible,
http://qmidinet.sourceforge.net/qmidinet-index.html

I've not extensively used / or concidered-using the others - there's
too much choice, and the advantage over JACK MIDI is minimal to
non-existant.

Cheers, -Harry

-- 

http://www.openavproductions.com