MUSIC TECH: MIDI 2.0
The release of MIDI 2.0 promises to bring a host of ground-breaking features, along with backward-compatibility, and it even promises to bring some improvements to MIDI 1.0.
However, we must admit that many of the most powerful features included in the original MIDI spec went untouched both by MIDI controller makers and by synth developers. Polyphonic Aftertouch, release velocity, proper velocity measuring resolution, and (as has recently come to my attention) 14-bit pitch bend, have all either been dropped, or never adopted.
The catch-22 has been that controller makers say “most synths don’t respond to polyAT/release-velocity/14-bit CC/RPN/NRPN” and synth developers could say “most controllers don’t produce polyAT/release-velocity/14-bit CC/RPN/NRPN”.
The MIDI 2.0 spec does provide a more powerful version of MPE and gets rid of that stupid multi-channel workaround.
I think the configuration handshake thing will be very useful.