[sdiy] MIDI isn't musical : Flame bait?

[Ian Fritz]

At 07:03 PM 1/13/2002, matti wrote:

>well. once you start sending data that is explicitly timbre, say for FM,
>MIDI starts to fall short.

I don't understand what this means. Could you give a specific example?

>Also, there is plenty of quantisation where you
>don't want it to be, that the limitations seem inherent to MIDI.

Most of the people I have talked to about this agree that this is an issue 
with the controllers and the synths, not MIDI. If the data are changing too 
rapidly, then quantization levels may be skipped, producing audible 
zippering. The receiving synth should smooth these steps out. Some do, some 
don't. If no levels are skipped then the zippering is not audible.

>Yes, it's
>more or less ok for when you want to play the keyboard, if you can accept
>a bit of lag. Beyond that, it's trying to fit technologies to processes
>not inherently supported.

MIDI supports lots of processes. Look at the specs. It's current 
controllers and synths that don't support the processes.

   Ian