Analogue-sequencer

>>In practice this isn't as bad as it sounds, because humans can't 
resolve timing variations much less than 5 ms anyway.<<

[flame-helmet  on]

I find myself slightly astonished by this factoid; 

first because the one thing everyone complains about when using midi 
is it's timing; whether or not there is any scientific basis for it, 
midi always feels like it's just about keeping up with the music you 
are trying to make.

secondly, because this is one of those trite aphorisms trotted out by 
the scientific end of the music technology community whenever midi is 
criticised; the truth is that the core midi technology was created to 
a price, & using techniques that were pre-existing. we all know that 
if dave smith & the rest had their time over, they'd have used a much 
higher baud rate & probably cheapernet instead of german hifi plugs.

one hears the same arguments about bit depth & sample rates, when 
plainly the truth about 16/44.1 is that it is the best that could be 
achieved in time for philips'/sony's market deadlines. philips 
originally presented akio morita with a smaller disc containing less 
than an hour of music at 14 bit...
everyone knows vinyl is better. :-)

thirdly, 5mS is an age- easily enough that if you delay the left 
channel by 5mS relative to the right, it will affect the perception 
of direction. it corresponds to a sound being roughly eight feet 
further away from your head. 
this can be a big issue in the context of midi programming, not so 
much in the sense of directional hints but in the whole feel of a 
piece's timing.

[flame helmet off again]


duncan.