My OperaMIDI and Notation
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 7:20:40 PM
I recall a few conversations throughout the last 14 years about music technology and computers in general. One was with my undergraduate saxophone professor. He, another saxophone student, and myself were all getting into MIDI and home studios in 1991. I was about to buy a MIDI wind controller, and spoke about how it would be cool to record live sounds right into the computer, and better yet to have them notated as MIDI. At the time, we needed a separate sampling module to sample sounds. He said, and I paraphrase, "That would never happen. Do you know how much information it would take to sample into a computer? And to take that information and interpret into MIDI notation? Impossible." Of course 486 computers at the time (Pre-Pentium) could not handle this, with their 16 MB of RAM and 40 MB hard drives. Nevertheless, MIDI allowed for some interesting projects and music productions in the basement of my home. Later, in about 1998, I had just bought a computer with 64 MB of RAM and a 2 GB Hard Drive, and my friend out did me with 128 MB of RAM. I joked about going out and getting 1 GB of RAM. Another friend, at the table, who worked in a computer store, said, "1 Gigabyte? Why would you ever need that? Do you know how much information that is?"
The readings surprised me on a few occasions. First, that MIDI has not changed since 1991, and that all the things we can do with MIDI instrumnets and computers, still works on serial cords? In most applications, we no longer even use parralel ports and have superceded into USB and PCI Express. Although sampling rates and signal-to-noise ratios eclipse what existed in 1991, it is interesting to know that some technology has not changed (e.g., 5-pin, with 2 still not used, serial connections for MIDI). The problem remains, however, that MIDI has a rather steep learning curve. In order to do what you want you DO need to understand MIDI language (e.g., ports, velocity, etc...). Modern software, however, seems to have made MIDI as user friendly as possible.
Practitioners need to utilize MIDI and notation software. Ideas for implementation of these technology, which benefit teachers, students, and music curricula, have been rather sparse. Often it has been the innovative, imaginative, tech-saavy music educator who has him/herself become excited by music technology who wishes to share this excitment with students. I am glad there are people now presenting pedagogical articles to try to give practitioners practical ideas.
The readings surprised me on a few occasions. First, that MIDI has not changed since 1991, and that all the things we can do with MIDI instrumnets and computers, still works on serial cords? In most applications, we no longer even use parralel ports and have superceded into USB and PCI Express. Although sampling rates and signal-to-noise ratios eclipse what existed in 1991, it is interesting to know that some technology has not changed (e.g., 5-pin, with 2 still not used, serial connections for MIDI). The problem remains, however, that MIDI has a rather steep learning curve. In order to do what you want you DO need to understand MIDI language (e.g., ports, velocity, etc...). Modern software, however, seems to have made MIDI as user friendly as possible.
Practitioners need to utilize MIDI and notation software. Ideas for implementation of these technology, which benefit teachers, students, and music curricula, have been rather sparse. Often it has been the innovative, imaginative, tech-saavy music educator who has him/herself become excited by music technology who wishes to share this excitment with students. I am glad there are people now presenting pedagogical articles to try to give practitioners practical ideas.
