|
I'm going to take a different approach to the apologetics here than
what I ordinarily read about MIDI in other places on the net. |
| Instead of
discussing strategy for bigger, heavier Sound Fonts, or my hopes for
the new extended MIDI which will have the power to |
| include the
samples from which it is made within the midi file, thus making MIDI
files a LOT bigger, I'll just acknowledge that I'm |
| playing around
with a limited musical instrument that has no ability to sound like an
expensive oboe in the hands of an expert, and no |
| resemblance to
the best Steinway you ever heard, with Van Cliburn or Glenn Gould at
the keys. Just because these instrumnts, along |
| with all the
Stradivari and Amati stringed instruments happen to exist, does not
make it true that a $150 clarinet is not a musical instrument. |
|
No
trainload of fine Hauser and Ramirez and Torres guitars can prevent a
Hohner Marine Band harmonica, a pair of simple castanets, |
| a no-frills
Russian balalaika, or even an Arthur Godfrey ukulele from being a
musical instrument. If you get your expectations in line with
|
| what your
instrument can actually do, you can make pretty good music on almost
anything; even pop bottles with water in them. |
|
So I won't be kowtowing to the snobbery that lets people distance
themselves from MIDI by comparing it with more traditional |
| instruments
and claiming that "real" instruments played by humans are
"superior." Baloney. They are in no way comparable.
|
| MIDI simply
has different sounds and different rules, so why not take advantage of
them? When I pick up a ukulele, I play ukulele, |
| and I don't
blame the poor puppy for not being a Lloyd Loar Mandolin. If
I happen to get my hands on an Appalachian dulcimer, I'm |
| stuck in one
key with only the major scale, so the instrument isn't very versatile,
but I can still get music out of it that sounds pretty good. |
|
This means I have devoted all the misery I am going to devote to the
failure of my General MIDI violins to sound like real violins, |
| and instead
take the best advantage I can of the way they actually do
sound. I am going to just claim the EMU
8mbgmsfx.sf2 Sound Font |
| as my
instrument of choice and go on from there to see what I can do to make
the best music possible with that instrument. |
|
|
I think we do need to remember that we can go to the Philharmonic
practically every day of our lives, then have some band of |
| South American
mountain men come along with fretless lutes and six-hole flutes and
ocarinas and just tear our heads off with absolutely |
| superb music
that has great harmony, great melodies, and great
rhythm. That is, unless we're snobs, it's always
possible. |
|
|