I was wondering if anyone could speak to the advantages/disadvantages of using hard-wired MIDI or UDP to send messages between two computers.

I just need to send a message consisting of a single 8 bit integer every 100ms or so.

I know how to do this with both MIDI and UDP, so my question is which option would be faster and which option would be more reliable (fewer dropped messages)?

And would this stay true for longer messages?

I was wondering if anyone could speak to the advantages/disadvantages of using hard-wired MIDI or UDP to send messages between two computers

sending-messages-via-hard-wired-midi-or-via-udp

Note that MIDI sends rather 7 bits values, but it's easy to send 8 bits too (using notes' pitch & velocity, or 2 controllers, or bend, etc.).

With a 100ms rate, both should be reliable. But if reliability is very important, then you may rather use TCP (with help of Java or 3rd party externals) than UDP.

With MIDI, you'll need interfaces, and both computers shouldn't be too far away from each other (without additionnal hardware).

Note that MIDI sends rather 7 bits values, but it's easy to send 8 bits too (using  notes' pitch & velocity, or 2 controllers, or bend, etc.).

With a 100ms rate, both should be reliable. But if reliability is very important, then you may rather use TCP (with help of Java or 3rd party externals) than UDP.
What do you call "longer messages"?

Sending messages via hard-wired MIDI or via UDP