EDWARD.STAUFF@OFFICE.WANG.COM (Edward L. Stauff) (12/12/90)
I hope those of you lucky enough to have sophisticated news readers forgive
me for piling all this into one posting, but it's a pain in the keys for
me to post at all.
Roland D110
I too just recently acquired a D110 at what I thought (and still do) was
an excellent price - $400. I was told when I bought it that Roland was
discontinuing this model, which is why (they told me) I got such a good
price. I haven't seen any (significantly) lower prices, but even if I did
I still think it gives great bang for the buck.
What can y'all tell me about programming this thing (or synths in
general)? I took an e-music course about 14 years ago at school (big ol'
ARP modular job), so I know about VCO's, VCA's, VCF's, envelopes, etc. The
front panel of the D-110 is so difficult to use so as to be nearly useless
for editing patches, but I'm in the process of writing a patch editor (IBM
based). I found only about a dozen of the 256 built-in patches to be really
useful, and I'm intrigued by someone's statement that you can program patches
that are much better than the built-in ones. (Sorry I forgot your name - I
couldn't print out the posting, and I can't ... never mind.)
EMUSIC-L
This list sound interesting. Can somebody post info on how to join?
Thanks in advance.
Obsolete Instruments
I'd like to add a thought to the definition of "obsolete": when an
instrument breaks down and parts are no longer available (try faking up a
proprietary chip!), the instrument is obsolete. Most acoustic instruments
are generally repairable using "standard" materials without needing a PhD.
This is not meant as a criticism - I am both an amateur luthier and a
software engineer - I love both worlds.
MIDI Filter Program
Now that I have my "dream" MIDI studio off the ground (PF-85, D-110, and
!pedalboard!), I'm starting to try to use it for "serious" performance work.
I should mention that my primary interest is in real-time performance (by 1
or more humans); sequencing has it's place, but if I'm going to sit in a
concert hall I'd rather watch humans than PC's... Anyway, I've written a
MIDI filter program on my PC to add key zones and velocity layers and things,
which my keyboards don't support by themselves. But every time I sit down
to play I think of more bells and whistles that would be useful. Like, if
I could just hit that key over there and generate a patch change, or if I
could have the channel on this velocity zone be different if I hold down
that pedal... You get the idea.
My problem is not in how to program these features, but rather how to
integrate them into a program that presents a consistent, powerful model
on which to base performance configurations and changes. Does anyone know
of any PC-based software products that do this sort of thing? If not, is
this something that any of you would be interested in having? I'm not that
interested in hardware MIDI filters, but if there's anything out there that's
considered "standard" or "state of the art" or "hot sh*t", I ought to take
a look at it, at least to get ideas.
My current thinking on this is to have a sort of MIDI signal processor
that takes entire 2- or 3-byte MIDI events (not sure what to do about SYSEX
stuff) and runs them through a set of programmable filters that will operate
on any of the parameters of the event, or kick off multiple events, or
re-configure the filter system, etc. Any comments?
-- Ed Stauff
Edward.Stauff@OFFICE.Wang.com
".signature? We don't need no stinking .signature!"