Who wants MIDI in the Flash Player?
YES PLEASE - I WANT MIDI in the Flash Player...
Too many people assume MIDI is just for music, musicians and for musical
instruments. It is not.
Arguably MIDI's greatest success has been in interoperative hardware of many
kinds.
http://www.google.com/search?q=show+control
In addition to keyboards, drum boxes, synths, FX devices and PCs, there is a
valuable world of MIDI control surfaces which include Mixers. The control
surfaces are rally a subset of the "industrial" uses of MIDI which fall
under the rubrik "MIDI SHOW CONTROL" used by major entertainment developers
for show biz extravaganzas, such as Rock and Broadway shows, Las Vegas
themed developments and Theme parks like Disney World etc.
Midi Show Control was at origin a broad and visionary protocol extension
anticipating all kinds of devices and uses -- for example:
laser discs [remember them], lighting systems, smoke machines, networked
MPEG video players, hydraulic equipment, etc.. See list at end of this post
or
Check out the original 1991 spec
MIDI SHOW CONTROL (MSC) 1.0
http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/txt/mscspec.txt
THE SHOW CONTROL MAILING LIST
There is a very intelligent and informative mailing list where dedicated
professional Show Control developers discuss everything from precise
programming issues, bug sleuthing, general brainstorming, security, project
research and Show Control business. The list also addresses life beyond
current MSC spec - next generation MIDI Show control if you will, Show
Control over Ethernet, Wifi and so forth.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/show-control/
Let's be clear MIDI is only a subset of ShowControl. And most show control
developers would not could not take Flash seriously for many applications
and formany reasons - at least until now perhaps/ Among the obvious that
there was NO midi, no hardware I/o, and not even an attempt to syncchronize
sound with video. Flash sucks compared to other systems. Likewise Public
security of big instsallations could be a nightmare in a theme park based on
Flash. But the name of the game is to use each tool for what it doews BEST.
And as all here know, Flash has some special virtues.
So for designing and developing end user interfaces, especially the many
stages of design mockups, aided by the growing portability of Flash makes it
very attractive. For Show Control applications, Flash 8 offers convivial,
easily customizable options. Thus the need for MIDI.
In reality even if Flash had MIDI in the player, [which it should], full
professional use would be limited due to likely timing unreliability. There
are better and well known tools for handling that. But Show Control
developers are famously ingenious and route around most problems by
combining technologies in new ways, optimizing the benefits of each.
For small scale applications or where timing and public safety are not an
issues, MIDI in the Flash Player opens up a fascinating new world of using
FLASH to drive an exciting range of external media hardware. Flash will
probably never be able to compete with the likes of MAX, PD [PureData],
KeyKit and others. But given the skill of programmers on this list I would
not be surprised at what emerges, especially when used WITH those other
MIDI-friendly hardware and software.
KeyKit [Tim Thompson] FREE
http://nosuch.com/keykit/
PD [PureData] FREE
http://puredata.info/
http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
GEM for PD
"GEM" stands for Graphics Environment for Multimedia and is an external
(plugin) for the computer-music software PD.
http://gem.iem.at/
MAX/MSP [commercial sold by Cycling74]
http://www.cycling74.com/products/index.html
Be sure to look at 'Jitter'
- a set of over 150 brilliant video, matrix, and 3D graphics objects for
the Max programming environment.
http://www.google.com/search?q=max+msp
Today we can begin to freely experiment interfacing Flash to the above using
Alexis Isaac's promissing Flash MIDI and the plugin he has developed
http://www.alexisisaac.net/products/flashMidi/
The goodies emerging rapidly in the world of "Processing" further suggest
why Flash Player should include MIDI.
http://processing.org/
enjoy,
Jason
*** excerpt from MSC 1.0 spec ***
Hex command_format
------------------------------------------------------
00 reserved for extensions
01 Lighting (General Category)
02 Moving Lights
03 Colour Changers
04 Strobes
05 Lasers
06 Chasers
10 Sound (General Category)
11 Music
12 CD Players
13 EPROM Playback
14 Audio Tape Machines
15 Intercoms
16 Amplifiers
17 Audio Effects Devices
18 Equalisers
20 Machinery (General Category)
21 Rigging
22 Flys
23 Lifts
24 Turntables
25 Trusses
26 Robots
27 Animation
28 Floats
29 Breakaways
2A Barges
30 Video (General Category)
31 Video Tape Machines
32 Video Cassette Machines
33 Video Disc Players
34 Video Switchers
35 Video Effects
36 Video Character Generators
37 Video Still Stores
38 Video Monitors
40 Projection (General Category)
41 Film Projectors
42 Slide Projectors
43 Video Projectors
44 Dissolvers
45 Shutter Controls
50 Process Control (General Category)
51 Hydraulic Oil
52 H20
53 CO2
54 Compressed Air
55 Natural Gas
56 Fog
57 Smoke
58 Cracked Haze
60 Pyro (General Category)
61 Fireworks
62 Explosions
63 Flame
64 Smoke pots
7F All-types
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