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Midi being an “artist” tool places it more as a medium like paint. The artist was able to use it to build complex worlds. MIDI’s cousin RS-422 existed in a tec

Midi being an “artist” tool places it more as a medium like paint. The artist was able to use it to build complex worlds. MIDI’s cousin RS-422 existed in a technical environment but probably enjoys as much use as MIDI but technicians have many protocols to choose from. the artist just needs to get it speak MIDI to feel in control and the artist generally has fewer stakeholders, which I believe helps maintain continuity of an implementation.

kubielid 3y ago
> Midi being an “artist” tool places it more as a medium like paint. I’ve used MIDI “as paint”. Written music using code to MIDI(1), and wrote “cross instrument” music, ie using my keyboard as drum machine. But these days MIDI is chiefly an archival method for me. Every time I touch my keyboard is recorded, is much smaller than a comparable audio recording, by design “forced fidelity” in the recording, the music is “searchable”, and I am able to pipe the MIDI format through transcription software (which would be near impossible from an audio recording today). (1) http://overtone.github.io/ http://overtone.github.io/
- detourdog 3y ago
  I worked on a project for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We mad a series of physical blocks that represented musical samples. The block each had a 1-wire iButton on the bottom to identify the block and context and play the appropriate sample. Because it was the CSO the biggest part of the budget went to sample cards that played instruments up to the conductors standard. Each exhibit could create a composition and play it back like a symphony.
  - kubielid 3y ago
    Sounds like a really cool project. Any links to the exhibit? Unsure if this comment was a refutation of my own or just a fun cherry on top anecdote, but in case I was unclear I was trying to say that “I completely agree with the shorthand of calling midi ‘paint’, AND here’s a cool use case that I think is fundamental to the technology but rarely held up as a benefit of said technology, namely archiving and assisted transcription of musical composition.”
epcoa 3y ago
> MIDI’s cousin RS-422 RS-422 is a differential electrical interface standard, while MIDI specifies both a current loop electrical interface and a high level protocol, the latter of which is probably its most defining characteristic today as MIDI can run over any serial interface. Today most commonly it runs over USB or its own current loop signaling, and has less commonly in the past been used over RS-232 or RS-422 from time to time. This is to say, it’s a stretch that MIDI and RS-422 are cousins. (Standard MIDI interfaces typically seen with the 5 pin DIN connector are not RS-422 if that is what you’re thinking)
- detourdog 3y ago
  Actually it may have been I mixed up RS-485 and RS-422 the project I got this notion from was research in the mid 90's. I remember a project that I used either 422 or 485 as jumping off point for MIDI because I thought at the time that MIDI grew from the spec.
  - epcoa 3y ago
    It was probably RS-422, because RS-422 as a transport for MIDI back in the day was not uncommon as a desktop serial interface (like on old Macs and their lineage), but neither was FireWire later and now of course USB, that’s why I wouldn’t refer to them as cousins any more than USB and MIDI are. RS-485 is electrically similar (and in some aspects compatible) to RS-422 but with provisions for multi-point networks due to switchable drivers. The MIDI spec and the signaling is not related to either. https://midi.org/midi-1-0-detailed-specification https://midi.org/midi-1-0-detailed-specification
    - detourdog 3y ago
      Sounds like cousins to me:)
      - epcoa 3y ago
        Sure whatever, to be clear the RS-422 port on a Mac was a generic serial port not a MIDI port per se. If you were running a PC at the time you would often use the 9 or 25 pin RS-232 port for the same purpose (which is the same port used for a modem or some mice). A number of period devices would have a selector switch between RS-422 and RS-232 for a single 8 pin mini DIN input. https://support.roland.com/hc/en-us/articles/201951959-PMA-5-Changing-the-Hardware-Switch-settings-on-a-Roland-Serial-MIDI-Device https://support.roland.com/hc/en-us/articles/201951959-PMA-5...

kubielid 3y ago

> Midi being an “artist” tool places it more as a medium like paint. I’ve used MIDI “as paint”. Written music using code to MIDI(1), and wrote “cross instrument” music, ie using my keyboard as drum machine. But these days MIDI is chiefly an archival method for me. Every time I touch my keyboard is recorded, is much smaller than a comparable audio recording, by design “forced fidelity” in the recording, the music is “searchable”, and I am able to pipe the MIDI format through transcription software (which would be near impossible from an audio recording today). (1) http://overtone.github.io/ http://overtone.github.io/

detourdog 3y ago
I worked on a project for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We mad a series of physical blocks that represented musical samples. The block each had a 1-wire iButton on the bottom to identify the block and context and play the appropriate sample. Because it was the CSO the biggest part of the budget went to sample cards that played instruments up to the conductors standard. Each exhibit could create a composition and play it back like a symphony.
- kubielid 3y ago
  Sounds like a really cool project. Any links to the exhibit? Unsure if this comment was a refutation of my own or just a fun cherry on top anecdote, but in case I was unclear I was trying to say that “I completely agree with the shorthand of calling midi ‘paint’, AND here’s a cool use case that I think is fundamental to the technology but rarely held up as a benefit of said technology, namely archiving and assisted transcription of musical composition.”

epcoa 3y ago

> MIDI’s cousin RS-422 RS-422 is a differential electrical interface standard, while MIDI specifies both a current loop electrical interface and a high level protocol, the latter of which is probably its most defining characteristic today as MIDI can run over any serial interface. Today most commonly it runs over USB or its own current loop signaling, and has less commonly in the past been used over RS-232 or RS-422 from time to time. This is to say, it’s a stretch that MIDI and RS-422 are cousins. (Standard MIDI interfaces typically seen with the 5 pin DIN connector are not RS-422 if that is what you’re thinking)

detourdog 3y ago
Actually it may have been I mixed up RS-485 and RS-422 the project I got this notion from was research in the mid 90's. I remember a project that I used either 422 or 485 as jumping off point for MIDI because I thought at the time that MIDI grew from the spec.
- epcoa 3y ago
  It was probably RS-422, because RS-422 as a transport for MIDI back in the day was not uncommon as a desktop serial interface (like on old Macs and their lineage), but neither was FireWire later and now of course USB, that’s why I wouldn’t refer to them as cousins any more than USB and MIDI are. RS-485 is electrically similar (and in some aspects compatible) to RS-422 but with provisions for multi-point networks due to switchable drivers. The MIDI spec and the signaling is not related to either. https://midi.org/midi-1-0-detailed-specification https://midi.org/midi-1-0-detailed-specification
  - detourdog 3y ago
    Sounds like cousins to me:)
    - epcoa 3y ago
      Sure whatever, to be clear the RS-422 port on a Mac was a generic serial port not a MIDI port per se. If you were running a PC at the time you would often use the 9 or 25 pin RS-232 port for the same purpose (which is the same port used for a modem or some mice). A number of period devices would have a selector switch between RS-422 and RS-232 for a single 8 pin mini DIN input. https://support.roland.com/hc/en-us/articles/201951959-PMA-5-Changing-the-Hardware-Switch-settings-on-a-Roland-Serial-MIDI-Device https://support.roland.com/hc/en-us/articles/201951959-PMA-5...