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Not to change the subject but the mystery of who invented sampled legato is much like the mystery of who came up with the concept of MIDI.
It really is time for an update to the MIDI spec, but I think that we're just so far down the rabbit hole with current offerings that change would be really difficult. Yamaha invented a sort of update with their XP format, but it still used the old limited version. There are various new sorts, but nothing seems to be moving on that front.
DG
It is an interesting topic about MIDI. It is old, but still infinite in its capacity, unlike other protocols. I think most problems with MIDI come from sequencers, not MIDI itself. To me, sequencers have done the same thing that all technology today - except of course VSL 😇 - is doing, which is to add absolutely everything that could possibly be done, though 99% of that is almost never done and the controls to do it are IN THE WAY. So technology becomes more and more clumsy. Look at a Xerox machine - used to make simple copies 99% of the time but now made so infernally overcomplicated they constantly crash or refuse to do a single-sided, black and white copy of one page. I personally have a workaround for this phenomenon by using an antique sequencer that has none of the five million bells and whistles of the current sequencers but like MIDI is old and infinite.
Bill, my main issue is the lack of velocity layers. I'm doing some work on a Disklavier a the moment, and I do notice the difference between MIDI and XP format. It may or may not make a real difference to sample work, but as time goes on and sample player software before every more complex, I think that there will be a few MIDI changes that will become necessary.
DG
Anyway I'm sure you're right that changes could be useful. I simply have noticed how wide ranging and useful MIDI has been compared to other 1980s digital technology because of its design which - at the time - must have seemed absurdly expandable to extremes, which nowadays are not so extreme at all. An example being the velocity layers of the Vienna Imperial - previously inconceivable detail.
The next midi protocol (HD MIDI) is coming. When? I can't tell. It's being discussed at the midi manufacturers assossiation.
features proposed for High Definition MIDI:
Note Update feature looks particularly interessting for samples/orchestral music. Maybe like a standardized VST note expression feature.
Hope Sample library and sample player manufacturer will jump in when the protocol will be completed.
What exactly are you referring to with lack of velocity layers? You mean differential control of layers within a channel?
Sorry, I was typing quickly. What I meant was that with only 128 possible values, it is not enough. The XP format gives 1023, I think. The reason it's not enough, is that the very lowest values are almost never used, and the highest ones aren't either, so in fact the actual normal usable range is really 50-80 steps. Having tested it, even though it sounds fine without, there is something more accurate with the higher resolution.
DG
What exactly are you referring to with lack of velocity layers? You mean differential control of layers within a channel?
Sorry, I was typing quickly. What I meant was that with only 128 possible values, it is not enough. The XP format gives 1023, I think. The reason it's not enough, is that the very lowest values are almost never used, and the highest ones aren't either, so in fact the actual normal usable range is really 50-80 steps. Having tested it, even though it sounds fine without, there is something more accurate with the higher resolution.
DG
I agree.
128 values seems grosely inadequate in this day and age. With more values you can achieve more happy middle grounds for parameters such as expression and attack and action on those parameters would be more forgiving. With 128, you are constantly battling, what I call, the Goldilocks effect; it's either too much or too little and you're constantly having to go back and re-edit or re-record.
Of course, with multiple controllers interacting, no one can tell the difference. Also, I think I could fool anyone into thinking a crescendo was totally smooth, and not a mere 128 steps.
But that stuff has never really been a problem with MIDI. What the real problem has been, is instruments that MIDI plays. Such as legato - to seque back into the topic. Which will I am certain will now be abandoned.
However, I think the guy who invented legato was rubbed out at some point. Perhaps in Vienna. Or maybe it was Peyoche, Nevada. In the middle of the night he sat up thinking "The transition shall be dissected and attached to the target note!" And then, next day, he was never heard from again. After he sent a certain email...