[sdiy] Handling MIDI Running Status from Power-up

[Next Expanse]

Yeah, 100% not meant as a criticism of the original design. The strict
separation of event from state and putting all responsibility for the
latter on the receiver is a very elegant way to minimize technical
requirements while maximizing capabilities. I just wanted to make clear at
what level the problems being discussed here exist. With today’s cheap
capability, there’s some room to revisit some of these decisions, provided
we can also figure out how to be compatible. I don’t have a lot of hope for
that, given that synths don’t go obsolete the way computers do, but it’s at
least something to keep in mind.

-E

On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 11:56 AM Tom Wiltshire <tom at electricdruid.net>
wrote:

>
> On 14 Nov 2019, at 18:37, Next Expanse <nextexpanse at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The right way to solve this would be to have a bidirectional protocol,
> some sort of way for the receiver to detect when it’s been disconnected,
> and to have a way for the module to query the controller’s state. Nothing
> else will fix the problem, so unless there are some serious changes, we
> have to live with it.
>
>
> The “right way” depends on the technology, and a bidirectional protocol
> would have been much too much overhead at the time MIDI was invented.
> Instead they did something simpler and it actually worked the vast majority
> of the time. Ok, there were “stuck note” problems, but everyone soon worked
> out how to fix that, and MIDI input devices started providing "MIDI Panic”
> functions that killed everything in an emergency.
>
> The fact that we’re still here thirty+ years later discussing it shows
> exactly how much of a success it was. I can’t think of any other
> consumer/professional technology standard that’s lasted as long aside from
> the 1/4” jack! (*much* older, but which isn’t actually that standard when
> you look closely). I also think the degree of cross-manufacturer support
> for MIDI and the ensuing boom in consumer-level “bedroom studios” is
> something that modern manufacturers who believe that they need proprietary
> systems to maximise profits should learn from. I think the evidence from
> MIDI shows the reverse is true - the market grows larger when all the gear
> can work together freely and everyone benefits. I suppose plug-in standards
> for modern DAWs are a more recent example of the same thing - a good
> standard can create a whole ecosystem around it.
>
>
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