[sdiy] Continuous controllers

[Tom Wiltshire]

Hi All,

A couple of questions about MIDI continuous controllers;

MIDI continuous controllers like pitch bend and aftertouch aren't  
really continuous, since MIDI is a digital serial protocol.
Does anyone know how often these messages are sent typically?

Presumably the answer to this question is variable over time (1980's,  
1990's, 2000's) and between manufacturers. I remember hearing some  
digital synth years ago that had audible stepping on the pitch bender  
if you whacked it about a bit. Presumably modern ones are better in  
this respect. But sending information too often (or at too high a  
resolution, say with multi-byte NRPN messages) is just going to clog  
up your MIDI stream. For example, a later Moog Voyager OS update  
included a feature to reduce the amount of data sent by the touch pad.

The second question is related;

What happens if a piece of equipment receives two different sets of  
continuous controller data?
For example, playing back a piece of music with pitch bends and  
aftertouch, whilst also having active pitchbend and aftertouch coming  
from the local keyboard.
How do you decide which to use?

If anyone has any experience or thoughts to offer in this area, I'd  
love to hear.

Thanks,
Tom