This paper describes the design and various applications of a communication protocol in a distributed music system that integrates MIDI and computer networks. We designed this protocol, called RMCP (Remote Music Control Protocol), to share symbolized musical information through the networks. Most previous related protocols were connection-oriented and did not emphasize efficient information sharing among processes. Since the RMCP is a UDP/IP-based connection-less protocol, it supports broadcastbased information sharing without the overhead of multiple transmission. To enable real-time MIDI handling, it also supports time scheduling using time stamps. RMCP has been used in various applications such as a music-controlled virtual dancer, a virtual jazz session system, and a remote session system. 1

Local-area networks offer a means to interconnect personal computers to achieve more processing, input, and output for music and multimedia performances. The distributed, realtime object system, Aura, offers a carefully designed architecture for distributed real-time processing. In contrast to streaming audio or MIDI-over-LAN systems, Aura offers a general real-time message system capable of transporting audio, MIDI, or any other data between objects, regardless of whether objects are located in the same process or on different machines. Measurements of audio synthesis and transmission to another computer demonstrate about 20ms of latency. Practical experience with protocols, system timing, scheduling, and synchronization are discussed. 1

This paper describes the design and various applications of a communication protocol in a distributed music system that integrates MIDI and computer networks. We designed this protocol, called RMCP (Remote Music Control Protocol), to share symbolized musical information through the networks. Most previous related protocols were connection-oriented and did not emphasize efficient information sharing among processes. Since the RMCP is a UDP/IP-based connection-less protocol, it supports broadcastbased information sharing without the overhead of multiple transmission. To enable real-time MIDI handling, it also supports time scheduling using time stamps. RMCP has been used in various applications such as a music-controlled virtual dancer, a virtual jazz session system, and a remote session system. 1 Introduction Computer-network protocols for symbolized musical information such as MIDI information have been taking on importance with the popularity of network computing because of v...

Local-area networks offer a means to interconnect personal computers to achieve more processing, input, and output for music and multimedia performances. The distributed, realtime object system, Aura, offers a carefully designed architecture for distributed real-time processing. In contrast to streaming audio or MIDI-over-LAN systems, Aura offers a general real-time message system capable of transporting audio, MIDI, or any other data between objects, regardless of whether objects are located in the same process or on different machines. Measurements of audio synthesis and transmission to another computer demonstrate about 20ms of latency. Practical experience with protocols, system timing, scheduling, and synchronization are discussed.

We propose a music performance tool based on the Java programming language.