Ah you're right, I missed in the message layout that the MSBit is reserved for note number. That's kind of pointless. And it is a bit absurd that they're so in

Ah you're right, I missed in the message layout that the MSBit is reserved for note number. That's kind of pointless. And it is a bit absurd that they're so intent on doing things behind closed doors. But the spec is very comprehensive and decently polished. It's not really "out" yet in either hardware or software. The last update made some notable changes. Allegedly Korg is releasing a line of MIDI 2 controllers soon. I think NAMM in January is going to have a lot of MIDI 2.0 demos. In the software world, some people (Steinberg) don't even want to support MIDI in synths at all. VST3 barely supports MIDI 1, and it will not support MIDI 2.0.