USB has allowed us to ignore that bandwidth issue since it carries many MIDI commands per USB packet but it has it's own limitations, like a necessary 1ms of jitter if you're using the class compliant drivers and possibly more depending on how the OS handles things. So in one sense, it really is a limitation of the protocol and the standard hardware.
The other issue is many controllers and even DAWs still don't support NRPNs well. If you're looking for a synth would you rather have one that only has 127 steps but is effortless to make automated changes to or one that has slightly more resolution but is difficult to automate and control? Even the controllers that have NRPN changes usually only use +/- 1 commands to make the change, which means they can't support acceleration on the encoders. So not only is it difficult to setup but you don't have the responsiveness on the controller that you want.
We're still watching closely to see what comes as the new MIDI killing protocol but I haven't seen anything yet. Of course Ethernet is getting cheap enough that I have considered adding an OSC controller to one of our future products until the protocol catches on it's not worth putting the development time into it
pflosi wrote:I was about to post the NRPN comment too. The Andromeda uses a resolution of more than 16000 steps, for example. No stepping audible.
Although I'm not a big supporter and user of midi, it's not the protocols fault - the possibility for NRPN is there. It's the designer's fault.
