Question for any MIDIots Who Might Still Remember

[MikeRivers]

[EDIT] - If you're reading this post for the first time, I've found the answer, so don't guess. But if you're interested, read on.

 

Some synths put out a constant stream of pulses that's, in essence an "I'm alive, I'm just not playing anything at the moment." I don't remember why something in the MIDI chain might care, but I remember that there's a name for it, and it's not in my copy of Craig's MIDI For Musicians. I'd like to know what its proper name is, and if you know, what pays attention to it. This may be older than some of the users here because I haven't hear anyone mention it in at least 20 years.

 

And yes, it's in MIDI For Musicians, but it's in an appendix, and there's no index. Nix.

[bookumdano4]

Well, I can;t recall hearing about this type of thing all the way back to 1983 or so. Maybe it was some esoteric thing? Also, if a midi out on a synth module..... or even a midi thru on a module/keyboard were spitting out an "I'm here" bunch of pulses or whatever, they wouldn't ever go to the master sequencer.... cuz the master sequencer is sending midi out.... not receiving midi in stuff from outboard outs or thrus.

 

So, what would be the point of I'm here pulses (I wonder out loud).... they wouldn't be getting back to the master and other "dumb" modules in the midi thru "chain" (ie pile of synths) wouldn't care one iota if the Oberheim sitting a couple of feet away is doing anything. The entire pile is simply waiting for midi info from the master machine..... and it's not sending out anything either when in stop mode.

 

Even smpte, midi positional signals, Linndrum sync tones and other noisy stuff from the previous century don't make noise when in stop mode.

 

That being said, it'll be cool to learn what your memory is bringing up.

[dboomer]

I remember too. I think it was called continuous something and it wasted a lot of bandwidth back in the early days. I always shut it off as possible.

[MikeRivers]

I remember too. I think it was called continuous something and it wasted a lot of bandwidth back in the early days. I always shut it off as possible.

 

The only "continuous" name that I recall is "continuous controller" which is a message that isn't just on/off, but which has a variable value, like volume or pitch, or something that can be assigned to a function, like key pressure (aftertouch). But the name I was looking for finally came to the surface - Active Sense (or Sensing).

 

Back in The Day, a MIDI setup often included one or more hardware devices that did something on its own, like a drum machine triggered by a single message to start playing a sequence, then stop or change to a different sequence when the next command came along, If the "master control" failed, or a cable became unplugged, the automated sequencer wouldn't know when to stop, or worse, might get confused itself and leave a note stuck on. The sequencer could be set to look for Active Sense, and if it went away, would stop whatever it was doing.

 

Some controllers that have it have a way to turn it off. Some don't.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Remember MIDI implementation charts? They would tell you what a MIDI device could transmit and receive, including things like active sensing. I always thought they were incredibly useful, but I never see them in manuals anymore.

[Anderton]

It was called "Active Sensing" and I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in MIDI for Musicians. It was a Yamaha thing IIRC. I don't know why it was considered necessary to keep the "MIDI lines of communication" open but I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time

 

Sweetwater has a good explanation about it.

[MikeRivers]

It was called "Active Sensing" and I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in MIDI for Musicians. It was a Yamaha thing IIRC. I don't know why it was considered necessary to keep the "MIDI lines of communication" open but I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time

 

Sweetwater has a good explanation about it.

 

Table V in Appendix A. Of course if I knew what it was called, I would have found it there. I eventually found the manual for my Kawai K-11, which is what I was using as a controller and found the name in its table of MIDI messages.

 

Where it was potentially useful is if you have a sequencer (a drum machine qualifies) that starts playing a programmed sequence when triggered by a MIDI message. Active Sense is like a safety valve to shut down its activity if a note sticks or the sequencer doesn't stop when it's supposed to in the event that the MIDI data stream from the controlling source disappears. Maybe back in those days, keyboards or computer sequencers used to hang up or crash more than we expected them to. Or cable connections got pulled out accidentally.

 

It must have saved somebody's day at some time.

[Mandolin Picker]

I think I remember seeing this when I was doing lighting last year. It was a way to make sure that the lights either stayed on their last setting or were turned off. Don't forget, MIDI is used for more than just instruments. I was using MIDI to control individual lights and lighting sets. Plus you can control effects and more. Considering the age of the MIDI standard, it is really a very versatile standard.

[philboking]

It might be MIDI clock or MIDI Time Code, which continually sends some sort of tempo or time stamp info. I've never used it, but I suppose it might come in handy if balky drivers disconnect when there's no MIDI data for a while or something like that.

 

I'm not sure if this is what you're thinking of or not:

http://www.dummies.com/art-center/mu...ock-explained/

[Mats Nermark]

Yes, my Yamaha DX-7 had it and it was a pain if you had a routing problem and wanted to see if there was MIDDI activity somewhere. If you hit a not on another synth the MIDI monitor would light up. But if the DX-7 was connected the monitor showed activity all the time.

 

Cheers,

 

Mats N

 

 

[bookumdano4]

The year before Dx7s were available in the US, I bought two from a guy in Santa Monica who was black marketing them in from Japan. At the time, many of us knew the dx7 existed but here in the US, all you could buy were these r-e-a-l-l-y stripped down, almost toy versions (not called dx7 but some dopey other name) from stores of that era like Fedco, Gemco etc. Which I believe I found out as a heads-up from a Keyboard mag article.

 

But boy.... even those plastic toy versions (alas with built in spkr and no audio out) were incredible as this was true FM synthesis sound. We weren't burned out yet by those bell sounds.

 

Anyway, my two Dx7s were continuously spitting out midi controller 3. Never stopped. Both of them did it. I'd have to strip the controller out when using them with MasterTracks Pro. Never did know what was up with that. But then I hardly did anything with those kbs except call up the presets in sessions to blow my own mind.

[Etienne Rambert]

 

Table V in Appendix A. Of course if I knew what it was called, I would have found it there. I eventually found the manual for my Kawai K-11, which is what I was using as a controller and found the name in its table of MIDI messages.

 

Where it was potentially useful is if you have a sequencer (a drum machine qualifies) that starts playing a programmed sequence when triggered by a MIDI message. Active Sense is like a safety valve to shut down its activity if a note sticks or the sequencer doesn't stop when it's supposed to in the event that the MIDI data stream from the controlling source disappears. Maybe back in those days, keyboards or computer sequencers used to hang up or crash more than we expected them to. Or cable connections got pulled out accidentally.

 

It must have saved somebody's day at some time.

 

I had a K-11 back in the day. Good 61-key controller. Even though I was a certified Midiot, I always kept it simple -

sequencer = master; other devices (even Thru ports = slaves). The only place it got messy was when I used arpeggiators. Post-90's, I discovered my Roland synths' internal arpeggiator, actually sync'd to an MIDI external clock by default. Problem solved.