MIDI 2.0, first major overhaul to music interface standard from 1983
What will Midi 2.0 mean for musicians?<p>I suspect: frustrations with shit not working with other shit, like it used to with MIDI, and a big decrement in DIY hackability.<p>USB is in the mix! Pretty much `nuff said, but I will say it anyway. USB is a complex beast with documentation that is a good fraction of a foot high, if printed out in all its versions on standard letter sized laser paper. If you bring that into any standard, that is now part of your standard.<p>USB connectors do not have the optical isolation of MIDI current loops; USB interconnecting will bring in noisy ground loops that will have musicians and recording engineers pulling out their hair.<p>The clever thing in MIDI is that a device which sends messages over MIDI to another device drives current pulses (not voltage). These current pulses activate an octo-coupling device in the receiver such as a phototransistor. There is no galvanic connection between the devices; they don&#x27;t share any ground or anything.<p>All sorts of talented musicians have done incredible things with MIDI. The resolution of MIDI has been just fine for people with real chops. MIDI 2.0 isn&#x27;t going to solve the real problem: talent vacuum.