MOTM

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How long will all these technologies last?
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Sadly, this is the best argument for MIDI, in my opinion. Personally,
I'm no fan at all of MIDI for SysEx and things like that... I find it to
be a real bear. The last time I had any fun with transferring patches to
& from my synthesizers was using Sequencer Plus Gold (DOS).

But when you consider that PC interfaces come and go so quickly, perhaps
at the end of the day MIDI really is preferable to USB, &c.

a) The ICs on the Cloud Generator will go obsolete before USB or Ethernet.

b) THe context of the original discussion was *programming* not *playing notes*. It never even occured to me to allow note on/off messages because that implies a whole additional layer of programming inside the unit that we are not perpared for. That is why I don't want a MIDI jack on it *just* for programming. People will automatically assume (rightfully so) that you can hook a sequencer to it. But since it has Pitch CV inputs, you can sequence it over� midi-cv.

c) Many companies make USB programming fairly easily on the HW side. FTDI, SiLabs and others have USB-to-serial chips� that have smiple interfaces and free USB support drivers for PC/Mac/Linux.

Paul S.

On Tue Sep 4 6:54 , "Tkacs, Ken" sent:

On the other hand, this may be the first digitally-programmable device
in the MOTM format (the second if you count the 650, and why not), but
will it be the last?

If there are more coming, it makes sense to anticipate and come up with 
a common scheme so that we don't end up connecting to our synths with 
MIDI and USB and ethernet and firewire and tin-can-and-string all at the
same time.  If that means that some of them take more advantage of the
bandwith than others, then so be it.

I'd have to think that this would make it easier to come up with programming
tools as well, maybe even one Java app that can talk to each new device as
it comes along.

>The ICs on the Cloud Generator will go obsolete before USB or Ethernet.

>THe context of the original discussion was *programming* not *playing notes*. It 
>never even occured to me to allow note on/off messages because that implies a whole 
>additional layer of programming inside the unit that we are not perpared for.

>That is why I don't want a MIDI jack on it *just* for programming.   People will 
>automatically assume (rightfully so) that you can hook a sequencer to it. But since 
>it has Pitch CV inputs, you can sequence it over midi-cv. Many companies make USB 
>programming fairly easily on the HW side. FTDI, SiLabs and others have USB-to-serial
>chips that have smiple interfaces and free USB support drivers for PC/Mac/Linux.

>Paul S.


----------------------- Tear Along Dotted Line -----------------------
John Neilson                                           jneil@...

    this message brought to you by 'e-mail' -- safe, clean, Modern!

It's not the first-and-last thing. The MOAWG (MOther of all Arbitrary Waveform Generators) will certainly be probrammable.

Again: a MIDI IN jack *implies* note on/off and that is not the intent. So as it stands now, a USB interface with a Java applett

is making the most sense. Even thaough one could argue all the MIDII programmable effects processors are the same case.

�

Paul S.

On Tue Sep 4 19:43 , jneil@... (John Neilson) sent:

It's not the first-and-last thing. The MOAWG (MOther of all Arbitrary Waveform Generators) will certainly be probrammable.

Again: a MIDI IN jack *implies* note on/off and that is not the intent. So as it stands now, a USB interface with a Java applett

is making the most sense. Even thaough one could argue all the MIDII programmable effects processors are the same case.

�

Paul S.

On Tue Sep 4 19:43 , jneil@... (John Neilson) sent:

MOAWG, another cool module, excellent.

Anyway, another fact to consider is that USB cables have a length limit
of 5 meters.  I believe they can be extended to 10 meters by using an
active repeating hub.  The usb.org site recommends using Ethernet and a
2nd PC to extend over longer distances than this, as USB was designed
for desktop use.  This may or may not be important for some of us.

Another thought.. as far as my experience goes, I've had better luck
communicating with Ethernet-based gear using various generations of
computer hardware and OSs then USB-based, especially with older setups.

George

synth1@... wrote:
> It's not the first-and-last thing. The MOAWG (MOther of all Arbitrary
> Waveform Generators) will certainly be probrammable.
> 
> Again: a MIDI IN jack *implies* note on/off and that is not the intent.
> So as it stands now, a USB interface with a Java applett
> 
> is making the most sense. Even thaough one could argue all the MIDII
> programmable effects processors are the same case.
> 
>  
> 
> Paul S.
> 
<snip>