Thing is, TP, there's a difference between defining a NEW standard, and creating unique codes to do something, something the MMA is completely in charge of, and deciding amongst manufacturers how to standardize the use of EXISTING codes, which is what the arranger manufacturers need to do.

They already use commonplace simple MIDI program changes (or at least, most of them do) and already defined CC codes to achieve remote control of an arranger. BUT THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT!

It's insane! How many of us are ever likely to want to link up TWO Yamaha's, or two Korg's, Roland's, whatever? FAR fewer than those of us that would like to link a Korg to a Roland, or a Yamaha to a Korg, etc., IMO. But as long as those codes are unique to each manufacturer, the whole POINT of the feature is completely lost.

Before MIDI, you could hook up Oberheim gear to Oberheim gear, Sequential Circuits gear to Sequential gear, Roland to Roland, and so on. But the massive increase in keyboard use and buying didn't happen until you could hook up a Roland to a Yamaha, and a Sequential Circuits to an Oberheim, and so on and so forth...

What part of this do the arranger manufacturers not 'get'..?