MIDI 2.0

Started by Cato, March 31, 2020, 04:13:06 PM

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Cato

Greetings!

Has anyone heard anything about or have any experience with the recently arrived MIDI 2.0 ?

From a website called Quartz :

Quote

... In early January 2020, the MIDI Manufacturers Association, the nonprofit organization that manages MIDI, announced the release of MIDI 2.0. The new protocol involved years of work from the organization's volunteers, and getting companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and all of the major music manufacturers on board.

There are a few major changes in the new version. The biggest development is the expansion from 7-bit values to 32-bit values. Mike Kent, one of the technical leaders in creating MIDI 2.0, says this is like going from the resolution of a 1980s television to the high-def televisions of today. It means that instead of 128 steps for features like volume, there will now be billions. An area where producers think this might be particularly helpful is allowing for subtle "pitch bend" (see the video below) and controlling how much bass and treble are emphasized in every note.

Also, with more memory, there are simply many more possible features that MIDI 2.0 can try to emulate. More memory should also reduce the chance of the timing between playing a MIDI instrument and digital recording to be slightly off. This should mean music played on MIDI 2.0 instruments will feel more analog, and make it possible for non-keyboard instruments to work better with MIDI. Historically, guitar, violin, and trumpet players have had to learn play keys in order to better translate their work through MIDI. Now, hopefully, they will be able to play their instrument of choice as an input into MIDI-compatible recording software....

...Duncan also thinks it will have a big impact on the composition of musical scores for movies and television, which are almost always written in MIDI (like the Game of Thrones theme song). Scores often use strings and brass instrumentation, and MIDI 2.0's higher resolution should better capture the textures, tonality, and range of those instruments, according to Duncan....



See:

https://qz.com/1788828/how-will-midi-2-0-change-music/
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Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
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greg

Seems the selling points are microtones and "bi-directional communication," whatever that is.

Could be useful for microtonal composition in the future, then. The way I conceive of MIDI nowadays is just a sort of lingua franca, or a sort of foundation, for any audio written on the computer- once that is out of the way, you can send it to any VST and shape the sound how you want. Hopefully the big notation programs would also add features for the new capabilities. Writing a full microtonal score in MIDI (with custom notation symbols) and then sending it to some VST instrument (like strings) and have it automatically play exactly what is notated would be nice.
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Crudblud

#3
Quote from: greg on March 31, 2020, 04:35:39 PM
"bi-directional communication," whatever that is.
Its main purpose is in facilitating MIDI Capability Inquiry, which allows devices to compare their capabilities and configurations and adjust themselves for compatibility out-of-the-box. Set-up troubleshooting would be practically eliminated.

greg

Quote from: Crudblud on April 01, 2020, 02:13:36 AM
Its main purpose is in facilitating MIDI Capability Inquiry, which allows devices to compare their capabilities and configurations and adjust themselves for compatibility out-of-the-box. Set-up troubleshooting would be practically eliminated.
"Devices"- mainly piano keyboards that use MIDI? (or physical MIDI-capable instruments in general)?

I can only imagine the struggles with that type of setup... since I've only ever use MIDI directly in the notation programs.  :P :D
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

Cato

Quote from: greg on March 31, 2020, 04:35:39 PM
Seems the selling points are microtones and "bi-directional communication," whatever that is.

Could be useful for microtonal composition in the future, then
. The way I conceive of MIDI nowadays is just a sort of lingua franca, or a sort of foundation, for any audio written on the computer- once that is out of the way, you can send it to any VST and shape the sound how you want. Hopefully the big notation programs would also add features for the new capabilities. Writing a full microtonal score in MIDI (with custom notation symbols) and then sending it to some VST instrument (like strings) and have it automatically play exactly what is notated would be nice.

As a former composer who used 19-tone quarter scales for several works, I was thinking that MIDI 2.0 must be a (huge?) improvement over things like the Motorola Scalatron of the 1970's, which was a microtonal synthesizer with a large button keyboard, but a dead end.  Motorola even hired an erstwhile composer named George Secor  to compose pieces for it and promote the machine thereby.

(I sent him some of my works, which he pooh-poohed in an otherwise very nice letter to me: no, his works were not particularly interesting.)

I found this on YouTube, where Secor plays short works by Harry Partch, Ivor Darreg, et al.

Note the early synthesizer sound...with its attendant problems.

https://www.youtube.com/v/gNFK6PxgmRk 
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

greg

Yeah... that's a bit limited sounding, and not the best type of sounds.

Currently I use a VST for strings called Embertone, and at its best it sounds totally real. Using that would be much better, which MIDI 2.0 should be helpful for.

(but for more fun of course there is the possibility of making anything microtonal, like this tuba or marimba or whatever).
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

Crudblud

Quote from: greg on April 01, 2020, 06:39:02 AM
"Devices"- mainly piano keyboards that use MIDI? (or physical MIDI-capable instruments in general)?

I can only imagine the struggles with that type of setup... since I've only ever use MIDI directly in the notation programs.  :P :D
Yeah, my composing is done entirely through drawing lines into piano roll with a mouse, occasionally using a (typing) keyboard for super small adjustments. The increased granularity afforded by 32-bit variables will be massive, and that's what's most interesting for me in this update.

The value of CI seems to be mostly for professional studio and live performance applications, where systems consisting of multiple devices have to be configured to work seamlessly with each other. If they can all provide information so that the system can determine how best to have its components work together, then the basic set-up is pretty much plug and play even for large systems.

Cato

Quote from: greg on April 01, 2020, 11:12:37 AM
Yeah... that's a bit limited sounding, and not the best type of sounds.

Currently I use a VST for strings called Embertone, and at its best it sounds totally real. Using that would be much better, which MIDI 2.0 should be helpful for.

(but for more fun of course there is the possibility of making anything microtonal, like this tuba or marimba or whatever).

One of my destroyed scores was in fact a Quarter-tone Tuba Concerto.  A professor of tuba at Indiana University (Harvey Phillips, the "Paganini of the Tuba") was interested in the work.  But like with everything else in my non-career as a composer, nothing ever came of it.  Phillips kept my manuscript copy.  He died 10 years ago.
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Cato

A skeptical view of MIDI 2.0:


Quote

...So many of the things that MIDI 2.0 offers are already available with the right choice of hardware. And it's become quite innovative offering tightly integrated DAW controllers that are specific to their task rather than every controller manufacturer producing a generic, works with everything but not specific to anything MIDI 2.0 controller. ...

... From a general manufacturers point of view it gives them all a chance to sell us yet another controller, but this time with MIDI 2.0 stamped on the box. How much of this higher resolution and enhanced protocols am I actually going to use? It's like how many people are finding that despite the almost limitless possibilities of composition in a DAW we actually quite enjoy a MIDI-free 8-step analogue sequencer....




https://www.gearnews.com/midi-2-0-great-leap-forward-or-too-little-too-late/
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)