[ale] finally a _good_ use of midi music

[Jeff Hubbs]

Aaron makes several good points. 

"MIDI music"'s association with "cheesy game sounds" has nothing to do 
with the underlying protocol.  My first use of it goes back to 1985 for 
a live show where I played bass and keyboards, and I ran a cable from a 
Roland Juno-106 to a Yamaha DX-7 so that I could play a drone bass note 
along with a high string tone with one hand.  Then, from 1987 to 1992, I 
went hog nuts, hooking up an Amiga 1000 to three rack-mount synths, a 
drum machine, a digital Hammond, three effects devices, a MIDI 
patchbay/processor, a keyboard controller, and a guitar controller (you 
can see this setup on my Myspace page at http://myspace.com/jeffhubbs2).


Jim Kinney wrote:
> Your understanding of the development background and details of the
> protocols of multimedia formats always astound me.
>
> I have always associated midi music with cheesy game sounds. I did not
> know it was as capable as you just informed. It has always seemed to
> me to be a poor mans synthesizer format of music. Piano is not really
> piano, trumpet is not really trumpet.
>
> But now that I understand the age of the protocol, it becomes far more
> impressive.
>
> Thanks for the education. I am passing the tool around for schools to
> look at (for obvious reasons).
>
> On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 11:04 PM, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
>   
>> The over emphasis on "good" in the subject
>> line is way out of place. Channeling the voice
>> of Thurl Ravenscroft* here, most everything
>> about MIDI music is not just good, it's GRRREAT!
>>
>> MIDI is the singular case of a truly public,
>> openly published and royalty free protocol
>> standard that managed to evolve in an industry
>> consortium and then, amazingly, it escaped the
>> cesspool of corporate proprietary greed in tact
>> and uncorrupted without the intervention of a
>> commonwealth democracy.
>>
>> This simple, robust and flexible multi channel
>> serial protocol was born in the very early days
>> of the digital revolution and still continues to
>> serve as a flexible and functional tool for
>> inventive technologists and creative artists the
>> world over.  While it's contributions to the world
>> of music are profound, it now serves well beyond
>> it's initial role as an efficient music notation
>> and delivery tool, having been repurposed to
>> hundreds of innovative control and communication
>> applications in other areas, from stage lighting
>> to robotics.  The music education application you
>> reference** is just one among a thousand great
>> little innovations that MIDI has facilitated.
>>
>> While it may be a fair observation to claim that
>> MIDI has been used to record and deliver a lot of
>> mediocre musical composition, the fault is not
>> the format of the notation but the writers. MIDI
>> has made the enjoyment of music more accessible to
>> millions of people, both in offering an alternative
>> musical notation and interpretation mechanism and
>> in facilitating the creation of dozens of new
>> instruments and music delivery systems. However,
>> I expect that the actual proportions of mediocre
>> composers is no different now than in the days of
>> Mozart and Salieri, when the notation was pen and
>> ink and only accessible to the wealthy elites
>> of the era.
>>
>> peace
>> aaron
>>
>> *<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurl_Ravenscroft>
>> **<http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/index.html>
>>
>>
>> On 2009, Feb, 04, , at 5:48 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> http://pianobooster.sourceforge.net/index.html
>>>
>>> Now to get a midi keyboard....
>>>
>>> This can be used in schools with out the need for a piano for each
>>> student.
>>>
>>> Awesome. Totally, fantastically awesome!
>>>
>>> --
>>> --
>>> James P. Kinney III
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ale mailing list
>>> Ale at ale.org
>>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>>       
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