Hector Martin

So the MIDI 2.0 spec just dropped and I'm skimming it. Highlights: - New layer above everything called UMP wrapping both old MIDI 1.0 messages and new stuff. - New addressing level of 16 groups on top of channels. So now one stream carries 16 "mega-channels" of 16ch each.

- Fundamental data unit is now a 32-bit word (fields are packed in though). No longer eating a bit for start/continue marker. - Sysex can now do 8-bit bytes - Optional timestamping, so as to not rely on the transport layer for time resolution

- Velocity is now 16 bits - You also get one arbitrary key/value attribute (8-bit key, 16-bit value) next to note on/noteoff, in addition to velocity. E.g. pitch (but just one). - CCs have 32bit data - RPN/NRPN CC changes are now one atomic message, no banking.

- Relative CC changes (inc/dec by an offset, good for stateless buttons?) - Similarly program change now embeds bank msb/lsb/program into one message. - Aftertouch is 32 bits - Per-note pitch bend (32bit resolution) - Per-note controllers

- To support multiple notes on the same pitch or full microtonal stuff, noteon can now *separately* carry pitch info, turning the "note number" into a voice index. You just round robin note numbers and pitch is separate.

And now for the crazy bit. There's a whole sub-protocol for device inquiry, capability info, and property exchange over sysex. You know, metadata. It has JSON. And zlib. And Unicode.

what's wrong with having unicode?