[sdiy] Midi problems

[Colin Fraser]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl 
> [mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Scott 
> Gravenhorst
> Sent: 04 April 2002 6:43
> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
> Subject: RE: [sdiy] Midi problems
> 
> I think that most sound modules handle an "unexpected" status
> byte correctly because they don't "know" that a controller that
> doesn't use running status is plugged in or not.  If a module 
> always responds correctly to any status byte, regardless of it's 
> otherwise legal position in the stream, needed or not, it will by 
> default, handle those extra status bytes that occur after some 
> arbitrary timeout.

The status byte can't actually be refreshed every 100ms unless there is
a message to be sent.
I think the idea is that the transmitting device, if more than 100ms has
elapsed since the last message was transmitted, will 'forget' the
running status it is using, so that the next message it sends will be
sure to have a status byte.

Not refreshing the status is only going to cause a problem if a status
byte gets lost.
I guess whether refreshing the status byte is in the spec or not, it is
still good practice to do so.

Colin f