[sdiy] New to list - and DSP development

[Cornutt, David K]

From: Kenneth Elhardt [mailto:elhardt at worldnet.att.net]
> I've never
> understood why the MIDI people didn't use 38.4 kBaud which is 
> a standard
> rate.

It goes back to when the first MIDI spec was being written,
around 1980.  Back then, 19.2k was considered the outer limit
for garden-variety serial port hardware; 38.4 was considered
unreachable without using more expensive hardware, and the
group that was writing the spec wanted to keep it cheap.
The 31.25k rate was the compromise they came up with.
I think the rate comes from dividing down a crystal that
was commonly used in NTSC TV circuits at the time.