From: bgood@sundagger.lerc.nasa.gov ()
Subject: Re: Techno Samples
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 17:57:33 GMT

In article <9210052105.AA01069@intercon.com> amanda@INTERCON.COM (Amanda Walker) writes:
>Bob.Weigel@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Bob Weigel) writes:
>> What makes a "real sound" is the 
>> expressive control, and that is something that no instrument on earth 
>> makes easy work of gathering from another instrument, unless they have 
>> compatable architectures. (Like transferring sounds from a K1 to a K1 
>> II) 
>
>I agree.  One of the things that I have spent some time thinking about, as an 
>acoustic musician playing with synths and electronic music, is what I think 
>of as "articulation."  Basic MIDI does give you some of this, with mod 
>wheels, pitch bending, aftertouch, attack & release velocity, etc., and some 
>synths let you parameterize patches with these values, but I still find using 
>them to be pretty cumbersome compared to the kind of control that an acoustic 
>instrument gives you.

Too true.  In my experience (Akai EWI and Yamaha WX-7 wind controlllers) it's not 
too hard to get some timbral control via MIDI, e.g. using BC data to control filter 
frequency, etc.  But I've never heard a wind controller that gives you the range of
articulation you can get from an acoustic instrument.  The EWI players I
know pretty much agree that the instrument is more responsive driving its own
synth module (a non-MIDI unit driven by control voltages) than when driving other
modules via MIDI.  And it's still a slug compared to acoustic imstruments.  Maybe
"MIDI-The Sequel" will contain more support for alternate controllers, but I'm
not optimistic.  I suspect the market for such things (guitars excepted) is
3-4 orders of magnitude smaller than the keyboard market.
>
>This is why, for example, a good fretboard MIDI controller will generally 
>sound more like a guitar than the world's best guitar sample played on a 
>keyboard.  Ditto for wind controllers, and so on.

I found this to be true as well, at least when you're trying to emulate
acoustic or electro-acoustic instruments.  There's been a thread on rec.music.compose
on writing/playing idiomatically;    For a classic example on how not to do this,
listen to the factory demo on the Proteus 1--some of the brass section work in
the sort-of-salsa section is pretty funny to wind players.  The notes are articulated
way wrong, and there are gaps between the chords as the player tries to get his/her
fingers from one chord to the next.  The whole passage has a very tentative feel, 
when any real brass section worth its salt would be *much* more intense.

In my experience it's easier to *play* idiomatically if your controller at least 
somewhat resembles the instrument whose sound you're trying to emulate.
Don't misunderstand--I'm not looking for the perfect oboe-like controller to 
drive a module playing the perfect mega-multi-sampled cross-faded oboe sample. 
What I *am* looking for is a controller that offers the same degree of expressiveness 
that the acoustic instruments provide.  I don't think pure MIDI controllers can do
that.



--
brian good                     
NASA Lewis Research Center     
bgood@sundagger.lerc.nasa.gov