On Sat, 2006-11-11 at 21:41 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote: > On Saturday 11 November 2006 21:00, Tony Nelson wrote: > >At 4:21 PM -0500 11/11/06, Gene Heskett wrote: > > ... > > > This thread might be of interest to the linux-audio-dev group, so I've > added them to the Cc: > > >>Yup, and its been a constant src of amazement to this old fart that > >> when the midi spec was setup, they used a serial port, thats fine, but > >> when they set the data rate at only 31,250 baud, ... > >> > >>Consistently attrocious timeing, with the horns always 1/16 beat late > >>unless the actual output order of each instrument is scrambled in the > >>order output. That would make it sound a heck of a lot less > >> mechanical. And there isn't a heck of a lot that can be done until we > >> put midi on an optical circuit running at several megabytes/sec. > >> Something like TOS maybe? > > > >Firewire. Many products already, plenty of speed, almost robust enough. > >1/8 millisecond isoch cycle times; each cycle can contain packets from > > many senders; each packet can contain lots of notes. > > More robust IMO than the din connectors now used for midi interconnects, > however the cabling itself can't help but be more fragile when subjected > to the rigors of a jam session with bodies walking on them all night. > And that has to be a consideration else the first users will get > discouraged at the high cable failure rates and revert, particularly if > they have a tin ear and can't hear what to many of us would be an > extremely obvious improvement. > > But I like that idea, a lot. Maybe some enterprising LAD people could get > together and spec something like a midi interface running over firewire, > complete with the repeaters so it can be daisy-chained just like midi can > be, and hopefully release it into the PD as a new midi-2 interface > standard. And design it such that it never, ever gets into the snails > trail of the 31,250 baud interface it uses today.
Forget Firewire - Ethernet! Far cheaper, far more common, more hardware available (eg switches) -DR-
