- Ancient carriers of messages from disparate sources and destinations
- Homophone, pidgins, linking languages with simple grammar and vocabulary
- Airborne rats subsisting on civilization's detritus
MIDI mapping is an all but necessary evil of music hardware. The lenses of pigeons are descriptive names for parameters. Instead of referencing implementation charts and awkwardly dialing in 7-bit values, let's take the friendly names and leave the rest.
Where the names align is common understanding. A filter cutoff is a filter cutoff by any other CC number.
As long as we can forget byte identifiers, why not forget protocol? MIDI is only an implementation detail. Where appropriate, OSC and CV can be, too.
Lisp is sometimes described as "code as configuration".
What is a patch but the configuration of a synthesis system?
If one configures a synth with knobs and buttons, perhaps one can also code with them. Where knobs fall short, tried-and-true text picks up the slack.
As the byte-mappings dissolve, the words follow quickly behind. Let's further erase the boundaries between preparing and jamming, programming and using, sequencing and playing by hand.