Why Ooloi Leaves MIDI Behind

Yesterday’s post was about pitch transposition in Ooloi: how an old Igor Engraver function (printed on a t-shirt, of all places) came back to life in a new context. That work didn’t just solve the mechanics of shifting notes up and down; it reopened the larger question of playback. How do you hear microtonality and advanced humanisation without drowning in technical workarounds?

In Igor, the answer was MIDI. Notes were split across channels, bent into place, reassigned constantly. The result worked, but at the cost of complexity: a “DNA soup” of allocations and pitch-bend tricks. Ingenious, but exhausting.

Ooloi makes a different choice.

With ADR-0027: Plugin-Based Audio Architecture, we draw a line: no MIDI output in the core, no audio generation in the backend. Playback is done entirely through plugins in the frontend. If you want VST/AU instruments, SoundFonts, OSC, or any other output path, you install a plugin. The backend remains what it should be: musical data, collaboration, structure.

This is not just simplification, it’s liberation.

• Microtonality is handled directly in the data model, then played back by plugins without channel gymnastics.
• Humanisation is no longer bound to 7-bit controllers; plugins can drive modern sample libraries with full parameter precision.
• Collaboration becomes clearer: the backend never streams audio, never mangles MIDI, never compromises. Each client handles its own sound.

Put bluntly: we no longer need MIDI as an output protocol. It served its time. For professionals who need nuanced playback, orchestral realism, or contemporary techniques, we now have better tools: VST/AU plugins and beyond.

That said, MIDI output isn’t forbidden. If anyone needs it, a frontend plugin can provide it. For tonal music it will work fine. But if you want advanced humanisation or microtonality, you’ll inherit the need for all the old machinery: channel allocation, pitch-bend acrobatics, the DNA soup. That’s exactly why Ooloi itself doesn’t touch it.

The logic is simple: Ooloi’s core manages music, not sound. Plugins handle playback, and in doing so, they do it better than MIDI ever could.

The DNA soup is gone. What remains is clean, modern, and far more powerful.