deadmau5 slams MIDI, calling it an "antiquated 60-year-old protocol"

deadmau5 has slammed MIDI in a new interview with MusicRadar, describing it as an "antiquated 60-year-old protocol." 

The Canadian producer expressed dissatisfaction with the protocol, highlighting alternatives such as OSC (Open Sound Control) and DMX while bemoaning the lack of support for these in many popular DAWs. "I would love to see more protocol support in DAWs, up to and including DMX," he commented.

"Ableton’s been cool [...] but it really lacks in protocol modularity. It's just like, oh, here's MIDI. Here's an antiquated 60-year-old protocol you guys can still use… like what? Just have OSC!" he continued.  "And they do, but you have to do it in Python or use Max for Live, and there's no native OSC stuff. So actually, a lot of the time I've spent during the pandemic was developing a VST that will allow for the interchange of different protocols in and out of any DAW.”

deadmau5 also discussed OSC/PILOT, the live performance software he's developed that makes use of OSC. "There were a lot of things lacking in the PC department, or the multi-platform department that allowed me to use what is to me a great protocol for music communications, where it's note data, float data, controller values and stuff like that," he continued. "I was like - how has this not replaced MIDI? And where is this MIDI 2.0 that has warranted a whole coalition or group of experts that have just been talking about the spec for years and years?"

Read the full interview with deadmau5.