KVR Audio

NAD · Post by **NAD** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:25 am

Or more precisely, should it be obsolete?
I look at the stuff you can do in FL with individual MIDI notes like set cutoff and resonance etc.... You can even have two simultaneous notes panned differently which is something you just can't do with regular automation or CC#'s.
What get me the most are those slide notes which are so awesome. You can have simultaneous slides going all over the place as long as you use the different colors and it's just so much tidier and more efficient than writing in or recording the pitch bend wheel.
So all this got me thinking: Wouldn't it be nice if we could do that with all our VSTi's? Wouldn't it be nice if MIDI were replaced by something more like what FL has going on? Is it time for a change?.... Has this been asked before?

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:37 am

I've been hearing this for many many years, and agree that it's... well, if not obsolete then obsolescent. Inadequate to the needs of modern musicians.

As I understand it, the main obstacle to the adoption of a new standard is NIH Syndrome -- "Not Invented Here." If companies A, B, and C participate in writing up the standard, companies Y and Z object vigorously. Without everyone on board pedalling furiously, it just doesn't fly.

Secondary obstacle: MIDI works and it's everywhere. So the incentive to update to the modern era isn't as strong as it might be.

*shrug*

I've heard of OSC but don't know whether it fills the bill... nor even if it covers the right territory. Anyone here knowledgable about OSC? What do y'all think?

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:41 am

It would be nice to move beyond MIDI, if only for the reason that non-musicians think MIDI is simply "that awful crap music that people with no taste put on their webpages."

cyanogen · Post by **cyanogen** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:47 am

I think my favorite thing about MIDI is that I can noodle around on the keyboard and have sheet music afterwards. Looking at the pages as it plays back sure beats listening to an audio file and saying, "What the #@!@ are those notes in the 22nd measure?!"

azertopia · Post by **azertopia** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:10 am

which is something you just can't do with regular automation or CC#'s.

You can do that if you consider the modular apps
most of them (reaktor , synthedit, synthmaker , max etc) handle midi input and can transform it into another midi output.
with :cc,velocity,note number,after touch,clock etc you can perform some massive transforms beetween i/o
'THE' midi plugin doesn't exist yet (but it 's a modular one i think)
It's not the first time I heard a such think "midi is obsolete" : it's amazing : the most experimantal part of its use hasn't been done yet (it depends on the midi user)
There's some tools to expand the basic midi data and to make plugins (and energyXT to use those plugs)

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:13 am

Bit like saying music theory is obsolete ... bullcack... it's just an option like any other.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:15 am

Music theory doesn't restrict parameters to 128 steps.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:20 am

Does too.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:22 am

Only when applied to Zamfir, King of the Reeeeeally Big Pan Flute. All other branches of music theory are untrammeled by such, erm, trammels.

Mr. Tunes · Post by **Mr. Tunes** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:47 am

I've heard lot's of people cursing midi but look how far all these composers have been able to stretch it to the limits! The worst midi comment i've heard to date is "midi's crap, it's only good for pinging settings into a hardware Reverb unit". I guess something like MLan does propose a nice fix for integrating your hardware keyboards into the DAW though. That is my biggest complaint when I use hardware keys, is the pain in the butt process.

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:10 am

Meffy wrote:Music theory doesn't restrict parameters to 128 steps.

128 x 16 key trigers & 128 x 128 midi cc steps

so it has 18432 steps

(if not more) <infact probly alot more because of pitch bend>

& no, midi is far from obsolete, nor should it be

IMVHO

Subz

Frippertronix · Post by **Frippertronix** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:14 am

MIDI can't do everything but it does work quite well nonetheless.

tee boy · Post by **tee boy** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:16 am

I must admit, I do hate the midi timing issue. It would be so cool to have all your hardware running together in sample accurate sync. But this isnt happening with midi - the best interfaces are accurate to around 1ms (and thats bullshit).

Meffy,

I did study the midi protocol, but I forget much of it. Is there not a way to string together to words and have 14bit accuracy for CC's? Im sure we learned about this on some Roland synth, so you could sweep the filter with no steps at high rez.

Warmonger · Post by **Warmonger** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:23 am

I think that's what RPN/NRPN parameters are for: 14 bit accuracy. Not sure what the limitations/restrictions are, but I think there's a good reason why they aren't all that commonly used.

jmevz · Post by **jmevz** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:40 am

Hmmm, I'm sure MIDI will stand the test of time ...

How else would I connect my keyboard to my PC and let Cubase tell it what to play without using a MIDI Interface?

Cheers, Dumb Question? MIDI's all I use

Is MIDI obsolete?