MIDI Presentation by A Thomson 31st March 2000.
The Musical Instruments Digital Interface is a system for
describing music electronically in such a way that MIDI-compatible musical instruments can
play it. A small MIDI file on a computer hard disc, or even a floppy disc, can re-create the sound of a full orchestra.
At this meeting there was a short introduction to the subject from someone who teaches MIDI to RSAMD students (Alistair Thomson).
We then listened to three MIDI instruments: a PC sound card, and two MIDI keyboards,
and we compared the sounds made by these devices when they attempted to play a variety of types of music.
The Presentation was projected on to a five foot screen to maximise the detail
involved.
We
were treated to a really well presented lecture and demonstration of the MIDI
format and its capabilities.
Click on the black box for the powerpoint presentation on your browser, and
check out the following midi files which were used:
1812over.mid
diamnd.mid
funeralm.mid
mars.mid
PurpleHaze.mid
hotelcal.mid
sym40-1.mid
rmidnite.mid
k622m2.mid
Participants in the evening were asked to write their comments on each of the
three Test pieces (Hotel California, Take the "A" Train, and the first
movement of Mozart's 40th symphony) as interpreted by each of the three sound
modules (the SoundBlaster 32 which costs £32, the Roland DV30 costing around £800
because of its sampled sounds, and the Casio CTK 301 with its cheap and cheerful
£100 or so of synthesised sounds). Some illuminating comments are copied
below.
The SoundBlaster:
Hotel California: "bright", "thin", "unable to tell
what the sounds were supposed to be apart from the drums"
Take the "A" Train: "tinny", "piano sounded like an
organ", "piano, drums and bass sounded not bad - everything else was
s**t" (the writing was indistinct here, and we believe that the illegible
word may be "salt", which is probably very profound if we could
understand it.
Mozart's 40th: "notes either on or off, no dynamics", "what can
you say?"
the Roland:
Hotel California: "sound quality better", "bass overpowered mid
& top in places", "sounded more like music but still electronic
with edginess"
Take the "A" Train: "OK", "trumpet quite
realistic"
Mozart's 40th: "OK", "nice violins", "better than PC
card but still a mishmash"
the Casio:
Hotel California: "honky, good bass, but not much else", "strange
notes"
Take the "A" Train: "too much percussion", "bright,
cymbally discord", "So that's what Rolf Harris does with his
Stylophone these days!"
Mozart's 40th: "violins, not violence, please", "is this
the same tune?", "what's that strange noise? Oh, it's only
Mozart spinning in his grave."
A poignant scrawl at the side of one of the pages suggested that MIDI stands for
"Music Is Destroyed Instantly".
In summary, MIDI is sounds but not music. Paying a lot for sound
generating equipment produces better sounds but not better music - if the
original file is fundamentally flawed then there's no saving it!
