One advantage that MIDI 1.0 had (and still holds) over USB is it's simplicity to implement on low power controllers and devices.
I got into programming 12 years ago thanks to MIDI, I wanted to control some of my guitar pedals with an Arduino, and the simplicity of the protocol definitely contributed to helping me hack things together and learn. I'm not sure it would have been the case if I had to learn the contrived details of the USB stack just to send a simple ProgramChange message (2 bytes) to my pedal (which uses MIDI DIN plugs, no USB there).
I can't wait to see how to get those 2.0 extensions into the library I built for Arduino [1]. Hopefully it will remain simple for newcomers to learn and enjoy programming by interacting with their musical instruments, like I did.
I got into programming 12 years ago thanks to MIDI, I wanted to control some of my guitar pedals with an Arduino, and the simplicity of the protocol definitely contributed to helping me hack things together and learn. I'm not sure it would have been the case if I had to learn the contrived details of the USB stack just to send a simple ProgramChange message (2 bytes) to my pedal (which uses MIDI DIN plugs, no USB there).
I can't wait to see how to get those 2.0 extensions into the library I built for Arduino [1]. Hopefully it will remain simple for newcomers to learn and enjoy programming by interacting with their musical instruments, like I did.
[1] https://github.com/FortySevenEffects/arduino_midi_library