Re: MIDI tick resolution

[David Kastrup]

Thomas Morley <address@hidden> writes:

> 2018-03-20 2:49 GMT+01:00 Ivan Kuznetsov <address@hidden>:
>> Gilberto Agostinho <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>
>>> Does anyone know if it possible to change the tick resolution of LilyPond's
>>> MIDI output to a value other than the default 384? One reason for wanting
>>> this change is due to the fact that 384 cannot be divided by 5 and so
>>> quintuplets on a crotchet are not precise.
>>
>> No, they would not be precise but they would perceptually be
>> exact enough.  Without knowing precisely how these midi clock
>> values work, I would imagine that the five notes of a quintuplet
>> in a MIDI file would have the following clock durations: 77 77 77 77 76.
>>
>> So what if four notes are of length 77 and one note is length 76?
>> No one can hear the difference.
>
> I tested two files
>
> (2)
> \score {
>   {
>     \time 2/4
>     \tuplet 5/4 { c'8 8 8 8 8 }
>   }
>   \layout {}
>   \midi {}
> }

[...]

> Looks correct.
>
> (2)
> trackBchannelB = \relative c {
>   c'4*153/384 c r4*1/384 c4*153/384 c r4*1/384 c4*153/384
> }
>
> Inserting rests here is surely not that nice.
>
>
> So I'd say there are use-cases where the midi-tick has direct and
> visible impact.

"visible" is the key here.  "audible" not so much, but for better or
worse, Midi files are also being used as an information exchange format
without ever passing through a physical Midi interface.

-- 
David Kastrup