OpenSoundControl (OSC) is a data transport specification (an encoding) for realtime message communication among applications and hardware. OSC was originally designed as a highly accurate, low latency, lightweight, and flexible method of communication for use in realtime musical performance. OSC was proposed in 1997 as “a new protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is optimized for modern networking technology”.
OSC can be understood as a more flexible alternative MIDI; OSC clears away many of the ideological and hardware constraints inherent to MIDI in favor of a open-ended, user-defined address-space model that provides arbitrary parametric control via standard networking hardware. The OSC Specification 1.0 was formalized and published in 2002. The 2009 Specification 1.1 update added support for new features and data types. Over the years OSC has been useful in a wide variety of domains beyond musical contexts. Its timing accuracy and flexibility make it a ready solution for any application that requires time-sensitive communication between software and/or hardware endpoints.
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