[Rosegarden-devel] Re: [linux-audio-dev] Rosegarden: All Notes OFF

[Pedro Lopez-C. <pl...@te...>]

On Thursday 25 November 2004 18:02, Chris Cannam wrote:
> On Wednesday 24 Nov 2004 22:06, Jens M Andreasen wrote:
> > According to my oldish midi-spec, controller (decimal) 120 is
> > undefined, so I was somewhat confused at first when I got it from
> > Rosegarden.
> >
> > A bit of digging shows that it belongs to the (newish?) GS-spec, and
> > means All-Sound-Off (as in 'killall -9')
>
> Ah, that controller.
>
> This is what happens when you rely on public interpretations of a
> proprietary spec.  Quite a few sources claim this controller _is_ in
> MIDI 1.0, and since most contemporary synths interpret it as expected
> (silencing all notes even if sustain is active), the matter wasn't ever
> really questioned.

Well. Here is an official source that claims that control change 120 is in 
MIDI 1.0 (1995 revision). It is not the whole MIDI 1.0 spec, only a summary.

http://www.midi.org/about-midi/table1.shtml

Channel Mode Messages  (See also Control Change, above)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1011nnnn     0ccccccc         Channel Mode Messages.
             0vvvvvvv         This the same code as the Control
                              Change (above), but implements Mode
                              control and special message by using
			      reserved controller numbers 120-127.
			      The commands are:

                              All Sound Off.
			      When All Sound Off is received
                              all oscillators will turn off, and
			      their volume envelopes are set to
			      zero as soon as possible.
			      c = 120, v =   0: All Sound Off

[...]

The book "MIDI programmer's handbook", (C) 1989 by DeFuria & Scacciaferro, 
does not mention this controller. I guess that ancient MIDI instruments  
manufactured before the 1995 revision can't be blamed if they aren't fully 
compliant.

Regards,
Pedro