On 10/02/2010 10:12 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 15:00 +0100, Folderol wrote:
>> Ralf is making one of his sweeping generalisations, and as you know,
>> the only generalisation that is true is the one that states all of them
>> are false
>
> Yesno
>
> of cause if a MIDI sequencer should not be used to control external MIDI
> devices my opinion isn't correct, but IMO a MIDI sequencer should be for
> external MIDI devices
[[ Warning - off topic digression follows ]]
Well actually, Ralf, you are correct in that MIDI is by definition only
for external devices, except for cable loopbacks, because the spec
defines not only the data protocol but also the hardware interface (an
opto-isolated serial interface much like RS-232 but at some specified
bps - which I don't remember - 3KBS? Rather slow, what ever it is).
It is a software + hardware interface that was designed for
communication between electronic keyboards and synthesizers.
I know that the term "MIDI" has sort of been co-opted to mean any
software inter-process interface that uses the same message protocol. I
guess that's understandable, although it would have been better if a
separate term was invented (soft-MIDI? SIIP? I dunno...)
So all of this stuff you hear about MIDI done within a computer, or
through USB cables, is technically really not MIDI at all. So there you
have it.
So yes, Ralf, you are technically correct, because MIDI is not only a
data protocol but also a specific hardware interface. It's the same
thing as saying that two applications talking to eachother on the same
computer via a local loop-back IP socket are using ethernet! Nobody
would say that! The nice thing about MIDI (the hardware kind) is that's
it's optically isolated at both ends, thus avoiding any kind of ground
loop problems (see below).
BTW has anyone here checked out the noise level difference between using
real MIDI connections vs. pseudo-MIDI USB connection? Is USB
opto-isolated? (I think probably not because of its bandwidth). This is
actually a serious question. I have a Korg M-51 that causes major ground
noise if I run both the USB "midi" and and audio connection ( believe
unblanced but not sure) audio to my M-audio delta 10-10. My next step
will be of course to try actual MIDI connections, but the M-51 doesn't
have a MIDI through jack, which causes problems because I want to use an
M-audio MIDI controller as a second keyboard, to avoid having to use
keyboard splits. I'm thinking of plugging everything in to single outlet
using a "star" configuration of outlet srips.I wonder how many of us
Linux-software people don't have at least one real keyboard synth? To
me, it would be practically impossible to play live at at moment's
notice if I didn't have a set of keys that I could just throw into my
car and go. Of course it all depends on what you're doing. I could see
for example, that someone who is only interested in scoring for films,
might have no need for an independent keyboard and amp. Or it's also
possible that people have keyboards that they take for live gigs, but at
home use their Linux boxes for experimental stuff, perhaps with just a
MIDI keyboard controller. This would make for an interesting poll I guess.
Actually, I imagine that there's quite a few of us that never play out.
And that's fine! Personally, I find that if I don't get out and actually
play with people from time to time, the music I make on my own suffers -
it gets to "out there" and too technical and sterile to be called real
music. Of course, what defines "real music" then?
Larry
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Why can't I install listed packages with synaptic package manager? (and why the idiotic release names?!?!)
. Sorry
