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Why an empty midi track0?

As I have read in another thread on this forum, Track0 contains metadata.
But what use is it to appear on the list and be counted as a track?
As far as I know we can't put it to any use. It is totally inconsequential data for the user.
In fact it confuses. A ghost track0 appears.

That the midi convention has included them in a track (I suppose to avoid having to expand and further complicate the format in a time when machines were very modest), does not mean that they really are a track. They are metadata.

A simile: It is as if the exif data of a photograph were printed on the photo.
The user wants to work with the image not with the exif data. They don't care about exif data, most of them don't even know it exists.
And to the small group of people who are interested, they want them to consult, not to work with them as part of the image. Because they are not images, they are metadata.
Fortunately, in the case of exif it was decided to create a specific text space, instead of encoding this data as pixels within the image. (Analog video teletext technology did do something equivalent, encode text on the first line of the signal)

Although perhaps I have misunderstood, and it is useful that track0 appears. Or maybe track0 is something different than what I thought I understood.

In short, doubts and curiosity more than anything.

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rncbc's picture

yes, it's just conventional to have all META events on the first Mtrk lane (track 0) on a SMF Format 1; this includes the tempo-map, time and key signatures, markers, etc.

cheers

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