Hey Sean:

I've been meaning to point this out since I found it - it drove me crazy
until I figured it out.
In an 'n' or 'noop' call, you can call every parameter EXCEPT velocity
without quotes:

#these work:
n 64, d96, c2;
noop c5;
{$vel = 100; n 64, c1, d192, 'v'.$vel;}

#but these do not:
noop c2, v100;
n 64, c1, d192, v100;
#both lines yield an "Unknown note/rest option: " (i.e. from the 'sub
_parse_options' function from MIDI::Simple.)

#in order to get MIDI::Simple to accept a straight-text value for 'v', you
need to use single quotes:
noop c2, 'v100';
#or:
n 64, c1, d192, 'v100';

I'm sure the "proper" answer is "you need to use single quotes around your
parameters", but given that this is inconsistent between parameter types, I
thought I would bring it to your attention...
Noel