@ Derek I, too haven’t seen this elsewhere, but it’s easily demonstrated on the Nord Stage: all one has to do is keep striking palm glisses for a few seconds while sending DIN MIDI to another synth or Cantabile, and voila – stuck notes! I can’t get it to happen on USB MIDI from the Nord.
Beyond this, if one recognizes that most MIDI messages require 30 bits (3 bytes @ 10 bits/per byte including start/stop), that works out to a little over 1,000 messages per second. That sounds like a lot, there are instances in certain styles of play, such as my palm gliss example, that require more bandwidth in short bursts now and then. A properly designed MIDI interface should buffer these brief needs and send them ASAP, but there may be other system tasks that get in the way. OTOH, USB has significantly more bandwidth than MIDI would ever need, making system interference less likely.
USB will certainly have far more bandwidth that a 31.25Kbaud DIN MIDI interface, but, believe me, playing Pink Floyd is an excuse for a ton of tonal clusters, and stuck notes never happened in any of my live rigs over DIN MIDI. Palm glisses are part of course both up and down, and sometimes up again
Effectively, that was either (all DIN MIDI)
Yamaha EX5 and Novation Remote 61 driving upper and lower manuals respectively into a PC running NI B4, with the EX5 routed via the Remote 61 and its Echo mode (MIDI IN echoed to MIDI OUT, merged with its own MIDI) with the output of the Remote 61 daisy chained through my MIDI rack units ( MIDI THRU to MIDI IN of each Rack) and finally into an Edirol USB MIDI interface into my laptop.
Yamaha EX5 into my Korg Kronos (with of course the Kronos keyboard acting as one manual)
The issue I mentioned above was studio only, and my memory is slowly coming back to me… It was to do with having my old MOTU MIDI EXPRESS in the wrong USB port (USB3 instead of USB2) after swapping PCs. A few years back I bought a new MIDIEXPRESS which did not have the issue. I’ve had a few instances of USB 2 devices not playing nicely in USB3 ports despite USB3 allegedly being backwards compatible.
I’m sure that my setup was pushing things. I play as a ‘1-man band,’ so in addition to the Nord Stage playing Hammond organ, I typically have other things running in the background: 1) two instances of Addictive Drums (one for drums, one for percussion); 2) MusciLab’s RealEight playing bass; 3) 1-2 virtual guitars (RealStrat, RealLPC, etc.) playing rhythm parts; 4) a synth (Miniverse, Oddity 3, etc.) playing parts, and maybe 5) a horn part being MIDI’ed to the Stage. Plus, both my keyboards are sending channel aftertouch full time.
So yeah, a lot going on besides the palm glisses. But I spent the better part of three days determining that the Stage wasn’t capable of doing slaps and glisses mid-song through DIN MIDI, but was perfectly capable of doing it via USB MIDI. Is that the Stage’s fault? Maybe, but USB MIDI is definitely more capable of being overloaded. I repeated the DIN-MIDI-fails-USB-MIDI-passes test over and over. YMMV.
Apart from the USB-C it appeared that I had a bad connection with the Unsuspicious midi DIN port on my UR22C as well . I actually this before, so I could have known. I had to bend one of the metal connector strips in the female connector a bit upwards, so it would make contact again. Just a general learning: do not trust to much on your intuition, it can be a prejudice.
To avoid contact issues in future I mounted my computer and interface on a wooden plate, fixed all cables at back and made it fit into a 19 inch flight case. First experience on the rehearsal today: no conncetion isues at all .
Image of computer and interface on plate, it is rather DIY quality (you may laugh about it), maybe it is usefull for someone not having 19 inch racks and a van or truck.
. I actually this before, so I could have known. I had to bend one of the metal connector strips in the female connector a bit upwards, so it would make contact again. Just a general learning: do not trust to much on your intuition, it can be a prejudice.