[comp.sys.mac] Help needed on MIDI programming!

sage@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Martosko '91) (09/20/89)

Hello,

I am assisting a psychology professor of mine in a project with music
perception and psychoacoustics.  We want to use a Macintosh II system
to trigger MIDI instruments to play, and then record the response times
of experiment subjects to various MIDI-induced sounds.  The trick is
that we want to be able to control things from procedures within a BASIC
or C program.

Does anyone out there have information about C or MIDI (or even, ugh, PASCAL)
toolboxes that are publicly or commercially available?  More specifically,
has anyone found MIDIbasic for the Macintosh (a commercial package)
particularly useful?  I would welcome all suggestions as to where to
turn next.

Please e-mail to the address below.

-David Martosko '91 Dartmouth College

--
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  David Martosko                         E-mail:sage@eleazar.dartmouth.EDU
  Dartmouth College HB 2216               Phone:(603) 643-4347
  Hanover, NH 03755

donehoo@olivee.olivetti.com (Doyle W. Donehoo) (09/20/89)

In article <15724@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> sage@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Martosko '91) writes:
>I am assisting a psychology professor of mine in a project with music
>perception and psychoacoustics.  We want to use a Macintosh II system
>to trigger MIDI instruments to play, and then record the response times
>of experiment subjects to various MIDI-induced sounds. 
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hey Metley!!!

Time to trot out your Xpander Blaster Beam Ogasmatron patch!!!!

Ya HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha haaaa!!!....

:-)   8-)   ;-)   8^)   ;^)    |^)   :^)

*===================================================================*
|  "Like a Captain, whos ship run aground,                          |
|     I can wait for the tide to come around...                     |
|            ....time stand still."     Peart                       |
|  "Believe me, I can wait..."                         -RADAR       |
*===================================================================*

BTW, I don't think you will find many things "MIDI-induced" among
humans (unless you happen to have a din connector in your forehead).
Start simple. Go with what you know. Try sounds first, then work your
way up to direct MIDI to brain control....

;-)     ;-)     ;-)      ;-)    ;-)

dar@telesoft.com (David Reisner) (09/22/89)

In article <15724@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, sage@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Martosko '91) writes:
> I am assisting a psychology professor of mine in a project with music
> perception and psychoacoustics.  We want to use a Macintosh II system
> to trigger MIDI instruments to play, and then record the response times
> of experiment subjects to various MIDI-induced sounds.  The trick is
> that we want to be able to control things from procedures within a BASIC
> or C program.

David,

Depending on the type of "response times" that you want to measure, you
may need to be VERY careful.  MIDI is far from instantaneous, and in fact
is not even really fast.  Any library you use for MIDI control will also
affect timing, and the timing may vary for different calls to the same
code.  If you use an interpreted Basic, you may once again have a
substantial delay introduced.  Some of these factors can even affect the
reliability/accuracy of relative (vs. absolute) timings.  It is also my
experience that it can be hard to use a subjective impression to tell
whether your system response is "prompt";  It can be hard to estimate the
time between events detectd by different senses (e.g. hearing and touch).

-David
ucsd!telesoft!dar, dar@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu