réactions à la news Les spécifications du MIDI 2.0 sont à présent publiques

The new USB MIDI 2.0 driver will go nearly as fast as the underlying USB port has been negotiated to go and uses an approach similar to WaveRT audio for transferring data.

On the second part, Network MIDI 2.0 was just approved and published as a spec, and I think will ultimately turn out to be more important than the USB transport. I'll have a preview of the Windows implementation at NAMM.

Network MIDI 2.0 to DIN MIDI 1.0 translation boxes will be a thing.

On the first part, we had a lot more work to do than Apple did on this. We rewrote the entire MIDI stack from the ground up, and have also built a very complete solution for MIDI 2.0 while also supporting MIDI 1.0.

Yes, we're behind time-wise, but this month we did start putting the features into Insider builds for partner developer testing.

If not for the backwards compatibility we need to finish (for apps using the old WinMM APIs), we'd be done with 1.0. But we're still finishing up the backwards compatibility work, which has taken quite some time to write. The new API wouldn't be of much use if all the apps using the old one weren't able to be plumbed into the same infrastructure, and able to be multi-client.

At the NAMM Show in January, we’ll have a preview demonstration of the upcoming Network MIDI 2.0 transport standard using Windows MIDI Services. Network MIDI 2.0 is really promising because it enables a different type of connectivity, unencumbered by USB cable length limitations. The Network MIDI 2.0 standard is nearing final review and approval. There are already a number of devices in development which support the upcoming standard, and you’ll be able to use them with Windows.

Supports your Existing Devices. Windows MIDI Services supports the MIDI 1.0 devices you own today, including those with vendor-supplied kernel streaming drivers, as well as class-compliant MIDI 1.0 and MIDI 2.0 devices. The experience will be better/faster if they use the new class driver, but we recognize that is not always possible or desirable with some existing devices.

Supports your Existing Apps. When Windows MIDI Services ships in-box in Windows, the existing WinMM and WinRT MIDI 1.0 APIs will be repointed to the new Windows Service. This will provide a subset of the new features, including multi-client. Those apps will not have access to the user metadata, auto-reconnect, device connect/disconnect detection, rich device details, MIDI 2.0 messages, etc. but will continue to work as today, with the benefit of multi-client (more than one app using the same port) support.

At Music China, our Chinese members created a series of videos highlighting how important MIDI is to the music industry in China.

This is the first of 8 and is the trailer that provides an overview of the series

Some continued work on Network MIDI 2.0

I've enabled creating WinMM-compatible ports from the network endpoint. So Network MIDI 2.0, via the new service, is translated to MIDI 1.0 and surfaced to applications which do not use the new API, like REAPER. It's also multi-client, like everything else.

Of course, apps using the new API/SDK will have more capabilities, including message scheduling, better device names, etc. but we wanted to provide at least basic IO to other apps.

Easier to view on YouTube on a larger screen.

In this example:

• Connected to the BomeBox using Network MIDI 2.0, across the network
• BomeBox is set to loop back the messages sent to it
• REAPER is listening on that WinMM Port using the older MIDI 1.0 API (no changes have been made to REAPER code to support this)
• Windows MIDI Services Console also monitors the Network MIDI Endpoint, using the MIDI 2.0 API.
• The play-notes command on the Windows MIDI Services console sends the specified notes to the selected endpoint.

Pete

When will we go into retail (mainstream) Windows releases?

Once we are happy with the compatibility with existing apps and devices, we’ll move Windows MIDI Services into the latest supported releases of Windows 11 as well as the supported Windows 10 release. We hope this will be soon, but this is a quality-driven decision and we need your feedback. We’ve tested dozens of apps and MIDI devices here, and involved partners testing with their newest offerings, but there are thousands of MIDI devices released in the wild over the past 40+ years and we don’t have every one of them. We don’t want to break your MIDI workflow.