RE: Percussion and delta-time?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sean M. Burke [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: 19 May 2001 02:04
> To: Lee Goddard; [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Percussion and delta-time?
>
>
> At 10:58 AM 2001-05-18 +0100, Lee Goddard wrote:
> >[...]The documentation doesn't make much sense to me, though,
> specifically:
>
> Yup.  The MIDI data format is wide and strange, and so the file
> format is a
> mess, and so anything predicated on it is a mess.  I try to pull away from
> the more aggregious parts, like the whole awful ticks-interval=96 things,
> and things like:
>
> >2. what is MIDI::Event's *dtime* or delta-time ?
>
> It's something that I meant to abstract completely away from in
> MIDI::Simple, because it's good at the data-representation level, but
> hurtful at the level of composition.
>
> MIDI::Filespec says:
> "<delta-time> is stored as a variable-length quantity. It represents the
> amount of time before the following [actually, current] event."
>
> ...which is not clear.
>
> When you have an event A, and then an another event B with delta-time X,
> this means: "Play A, wait X ticks, and then play B".
>
>
> As I say in the preface to MIDI::Filespec:
> "The file below is not everything you need to know about MIDI -- not by a
> long shot. If you know MIDI-on-the-wire, this document tells you how to
> encapsulate that data into files -- and that's about all it tells you. If
> you need to know the semantics (or even syntax) of, for example,
> key_after_touch, it's not in here."
>
> Maybe I should add something about how it's neither complete NOR clear.
>
> Man, I wish /Musician's Guide to MIDI/ were still in print:
>   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0782112854

That's all a great help.  It might be an idea to put the
common SEE ALSO section in the POD - I'd overlooked the docs for
MIDI::Filespec.

Thanks again.

Lee
(Pronounced Thomas).