MMA President?

[JohnG11]

Craig, forgive me if the question is indiscreet, but in one of your articles at the MMA I see you now described as "former President."

When did that occur and is there a reason you can share with us for the change? I don't recall seeing any announcement.

 

Also we don't seem to have had any news of SMF 2.0 progress for more than a year.

I wrote on the MMA forum "I strongly suspect we'll see something before the end of 2021."

Here we are two thirds of the way through 2022 and still nothing.

What gives? Do you know?

 

I beg your pardon if you'd rather this was kept quiet.

JohnG.

[Anderton]

 

1 hour ago, JohnG11 said:

Craig, forgive me if the question is indiscreet, but in one of your articles at the MMA I see you now described as "former President."

When did that occur and is there a reason you can share with us for the change? I don't recall seeing any announcement.

 

No problem, it's all transparent...it's just that most people outside the TMA don't care, LOL.

 

The President's term is two years. After serving two years, it was time to step down. Unlike some entities, the MMA has peaceful transfers of power   Athan Billias is now the President, and to say he's dedicated to continuing MIDI 2.0's forward motion would be an understatement.

 

However, I'm still involved in The MIDI Association. I just edited a press release that will go out soon, regarding progress with MIDI 2.0. One of the most important developments is that there is now a hardware/software test setup that is being given on request to TMA members. It streamlines prototyping and checking conformity of the products under development (and yes, there are most definitely products under development). This is a big deal. There's an even bigger deal in the background that I can't talk about, but it will move MIDI 2.0 along quite a bit once it's finalized. Also note that Apple now has MIDI 2.0 "hooks" in the most recent operating systems.

 

TMA moves slowly and deliberately because the goal is not to get some gear out into the world, slap a MIDI 2.0 label on it, and make some quick bucks. The goal is to have a spec that remains viable for decades, can accommodate technology we can't even envision yet, and remains fully compatible with MIDI 1.0. This is not a trivial effort, believe me! But I'd rather see companies take their time and get it right. Remember, an entire industry has to be completely on the same page. Even with the unparalleled degree of cooperation that has always been part of MIDI, there are still a lot of moving parts that need to be taken into account.

[AthanBillias]

Craig and I are still working closely together and he is still an important part of the MIDI Association. In fact, he reached out and ask me to chime in here which I am happy to do. 

 

The MIDI Association is a non-profit member-driven trade organization. 

 

We have 102 members which include the large OS Companies (Apple , Google and Microsoft), large musical instrument companies (Yamaha, Roland, Korg, Steinway, Native Instruments, etc.) as well as software companies including most of the main DAW brands (Ableton, Bitwig,Logic, Mark of The Unicorn,  Steinberg). The majority of our members are actually smaller companies with revenues under 1 million dollars a year. 

Corporate members pay based on annual revenue. 

 

The corporate members elect a Technical Standards Board and an Executive Board.  All of the people serve on the boards as volunteers. 

 

Craig mentioned a press release about prototyping and all the details are here on the MIDI.org website. 

https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/the-midi-association-announces-midi-2-0-development-tools

 

As Craig said we try to be a transparent as possible about what we are doing, but do have to abide by our By Laws which state that we cannot publicly discuss details of MIDI specifications until they have received final approval by our members, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out to info@midi.org and we will try to get you whatever information is available for release.  Remember we are all volunteers so sometimes it might take a day or to for us to respond. 

 

We are really excited about both MIDI 2.0 and the 40th anniversary of MIDI in 2023!

[JohnG11]

Craig and Athan,

 

Very many thanks for your responses.

I've been working with MIDI since the late eighties and used to answer users questions on the old MIDI forum.

It was you I think, Athan, who communicated with me, was it 2016(?) and made me a moderator of the MMA forum back then.

(We try to keep the spammers in check on a daily basis!)

I don't suppose you remember though, a lot of water has passed beneath the bridge since then.

 

Despite this I was unaware of the change of Presidency of the MMA every two years.

 

Naturally I keep up to date with all the various press releases on the main site.

I'm sure when you are directly involved the MIDI 2.0 process and various bits of hardware/software for testing are highly stimulating.

However, from the users' point of view there has been a dearth of apparent progress since 2020!

A huge amount of interest at the launch, but many people I talk to seem to have lost interest or are angry at the lack of information from the end users point of view.

 

My career was in the data comms then the telecomms and lastly the satcomms business.

I worked with most of the standards organisations during that time, the IEEE, the CCITT, the BSI and also many telcos.etc.

One thing we learnt during that time was not to make a premature announcemnt of a forthcoming product.

Users expect imminent availability.

Certainly Yamaha music is well aware of this with their product releases.

 

My question was actually prompted by a couple of users questions over on the MMA forum.

I think most people would actually like to have some indication when the SMF 2.0 specification is likely to be released.

I'm quite sure the creation of that standard is in no way a trivial matter.

Is it likely to be released this year?

 

Many thanks again,

JohnG.