From: ljnelson@unix.amherst.edu (LAiRD j. NeLSoN)
Subject: Re: Winter NAMM 1983
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 05:18:40 GMT

Tapas Das (tapas@esri.com) wrote, reporting from NAMM:

> Alesis showed off their new Synthesizer and Mixer unit.
> The synthesizer has 64 note polyphony, an industry first.
> It has a digital interface that hooks up directly to their A-DAT.
> All this for an amazing list price of $1495.  Should be out in a few
> months.

Real Soon Now is a registered trademark of VaporWare Inc. and its subsidiaries.

> Mackie showed off their new Midi controlled retrofit for their
> mixers.  Works great.  Their 24 channel mixers look and feel cool.

They must offer one to fit the 1202, yes?  What features are MIDI functional?

> Fostex showed their new midi controlled mixers, the DCM100.  
> After you have seen how much they simplify things, you would
> hate to use a dumb mixer.

I would also hate to use a mixer with a lousy noise floor.  Remember the MOTU
version of this idea?  Here's hoping Fostex has gotten it right (Nick, have
you posted the "mini review" you hinted at earlier this year?).

> However, the most intriguing and innovative product was the
> HOLTZs Midi Translator.  This product was displayed in the 
> Atari booth, by Jimmy Holtz, the inventor himself.  This device
> will revolutionize the way we trigger midi sound sources. 

Intriguing, yes.  Innovative, okay.  BUT:

> [...] Even a novice with
> no musical expertize can run their fingers over the pressure
> sensitive board and make music and express themselves in ways
> otherwise impossible with standard instruments like pianos,
> guitars and violins.  No wrong scales, no wrong chords, no
> wrong notes.  The powerful software takes care of all the
> housekeeping.

This is just plain *frightening*.  And we're worried about *sample players* 
being boring.  No wrong notes?  What are those?

I hope it's just me, but I'm noticing a trend in music in general: people just
aren't spending the time anymore to learn how to play an instrument well--or
even passably.  Side note: as a jazz musician, I've noticed this a lot--finding
a good teacher or even a very competent grad student to teach you the tricks
of the trade is proving harder and harder.  Finding people who can actually
perform the music live and make it look easy is forty times as hard.  Finding
hacks like me, with a little patience, experience and self-criticism under
our belts, mashing our ways through overused jazz standards while gritting
teeth is pretty tough too--because there are so many avenues in music now 
where you can let the instrument/machine do the work for you: from composing
to performing.  An *instrument* is meant to be studied, played and performed
*on*; it is not supposed to do that on its own.

And, let's face it, many types of contemporary music, usually backbeat infested
hyphenated music styles that hatch and flourish every other day, require
very little besides being able to call up the PowerWang patch on your M1, 
firing up the TR808 with someone else's pattern, setting the sequencer on 
infinite loop and switching on the 8-track.  Not that this invalidates those
forms of music--otherwise people wouldn't continue to create them--and not
that there aren't exceptions to this rule--a band like Incognito leaps to
mind, at least in the cheese-funk category :).  But objectively we're talking
an appreciation of the Incredibly Simple built into the framework of modern
music and modern instruments: artists who let their machines play *for* them
(and please: I'm not talking live sequencing here--you know what's going on)
get rewarded both with money and hero-status, and synth makers who produce 
boxes geared towards *imitating* the *sounds* of those artists get rewarded
as well.  Am I the only one who's frightened by this?  Am I the only one dumb
enough to write a 50,000 word church sermon on it?  :)

Bottom line?  Lack of patience, folks.  We've all heard it referred to as some
kind of national disease, like a sort of MTV-itis, and as hokey as that seems
to be, nowhere is it more clear than in the field of contemporary music (by
which, ironically, I don't mean one narrow *kind* of music, but, roughly
speaking, music of the late seventies onwards).  Whether you agree or not,
one thing is *very* clear and, at best, disillusioning: the lack of patience
is bleeding into the instrument market itself, with the latest incarnations
of the turn-on-the-power-and-press-two-buttons-and-out-comes-the-latest-
Billboard-hit kinds of instruments.  The Holtz Translator strikes me as being
very popular for just this reason: as Tapas noted, there are no "wrong notes."

In short, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, uh, I don't know, go out and
buy WaveStations or something.  Or hire my quintet.  End of dippy sermon.

> To prove his point, Jimmy was asking bystanders to give this board
> a try.  To their amazement they found how easy it was to make
> good sounding music, even for people with no musical background.

[FX: B-movie scream]

> Keyboard Magazine reps were very impressed.  They are going
> to run a review soon.  Keeps your eyes open.

If I'm awake.

> Its about time, somebody came up with a better interface to 
> trigger midi notes.

Granted.  And if this "housekeeping" algorithm can be switchedDESTROYEDoff,
then *maybe* something will come of this Holtzian invention.  Gut reaction:
sounds like a big, wanky-ish kind of toy designed for people who don't even 
want to *learn* how to make music.

> Roland also showed a prototype model for their successor to
> the JD800.  As you may have guessed, its called the JD1000
> and has a built in sequencer and 76 keys....maybe to compete
> with the Korg O1/W Pro.  They also showed a successor to 
> the JV80 synth.

Crowds roared.  Extra police were called in.  Ecstatic riots were started to
the accompaniment of vast orchestras.

> Yamaha showed their new PSR5700 portable home keyboard.  Probably
> the most feature rich home keyboard one can buy.  It does everything.
> Rythm, bass, chord, solo, chorus, auto chord changes, harmonizes
> as you play, even plays solo by itself, when you stop.

Shows up to rehearsal on time, negotiates the cash for the gig, sets itself
up with its included Robot Roadies, and always buys the beer afterwards.

> One really needs to see how sophisticated these portables have become.
> The only thing they lack is pro quality sound and programming options.
> Hook them up to some pro quality sound modules, and viola, you
> have an impressive one man band show.

Composed and performed entirely by somebody else.  No thanks.

[FX: Wizard of Oz, munchkin noises] There's no place like home, there's no
place like home...

Incidentally, thanks for the review.

LAiRD

--
ljnelson@unix.amherst.edu           |
ljnelson@amh.amherst.edu            |          The Quintet-essential.
(413) 542-2932                      |

--
ljnelson@unix.amherst.edu           |
ljnelson@amh.amherst.edu            |          The Quintet-essential.
(413) 542-2932                      |