[Discuss] More on MIDI

[pwillis]

Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> On 2009-06-29 09:59-0700 Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> However, if
> anybody here is aware of a free sofware synthesizer that uses physical
> modelling, I would be happy to hear about that since the combination of 
> tiny
> MIDI files and a software sound synthesizer that creates sound from them
> that is better than the usual sound quality you get from CD's is
> appealing.
> 
> Alan

The main problem with synthesizers is the available number of channels
and processing speed available for real-time  mixing.

It's pretty difficult to synthesize a 120 piece orchestra with only
64 voice polyphony (in theory). It usually takes more than one voice
to adequately mimic the various modalities of a single instrument.

One component primarily distinguishing real orchestrations from
synthetic is the presence of a multitude of subtle, random,
timing errors caused by the human beings playing the piece. This is
normally referred to as 'style' or 'interpretation'.

Having said that, most commercial pop music is scored and then
recorded using MIDI as accompaniment, which begs the question
"would anyone really notice an absence of 'style', since modern
music hasn't had much lately"

The mechanization of music is not a new idea. Piano rolls
have been around since the invention of the pianoforte
and harpsichord.

Boston Dynamics 'Big Dog' playing piano....hmmmm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM

I think the 2 stroke motor sound would be distracting.


Peter