>> and as ever, anyone on LAD is free to write and ask me. i have the >> official docs from the MMA, and i'm quite willing to answer >> questions. > >Ok then :) >I was wondering, is there anything in the MIDI specification about the >difference between 'bulk dump' system exclusive and 'realtime' system >exclusive messages, such as what would be a reasonable maximum >length for timing critical sysex?
This is the most germane material I could find: p.5: Realtime messages are used for synchronization and are intended for all clock-based units in a system. They contain status bytes only - no data bytes. Realtime messages may be sent at any time - even between the bytes of a message which has a different status. .... Exclusive messages can contain any number of data bytes and can be terminated either by an End of Exclusive (EOX) or any other status byte (except real-time messages). p.34 Since the purpose of MIDI is to connect many kinds of musical instruments and peripheral equipment, it is best not to use Exclusive messages to convey real-time performance information (with the exception of special Universal messages described below). Performance information is best sent via Channel Voice messages in real time.
