EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 32, Number 4 This issue's topics: faq (Frequently Asked Questions) (10 messages) What do I need ??? (2 messages) searching OMR program (2 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. -------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 17:34:37 EDT From: ronin Subject: faq i have an idea... several internet newsgroups have started maintaining Frequently Asked Questions files. while the MIDISPEC PACKAGE sort of works for the basic midi info, there is a continuing need for an overview of available hardware and software, much as appears in EM. should we perhaps maintain online versions of those spreadsheets, so that when someone asks 'tell me what to buy', we can just point them at the raw data? then, if there are further, substantive inquiries, we can go into them without going the same old rounds on mac/pc/coda/opcode/mpu/etc... what say? -------------< Extremism in the Pursuit of Good Noise is no Vice >------- Eric Harnden (Ronin) or The American University Physics Dept. Washington, D.C ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 18:14:11 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: faq A question of "great minds running in the same channel". I was thinking about this as well this morning. I'm sure that I can put something together once I get caught up with the digests (I'm struggling through March now, and those great tuning tutorials by Raybro...). I'm more that willing to hear anything volunteers might have to contribute. Perhaps the best way to attack this is to get some basic setups for Mac, PC, Atari, and Amiga (anybody left out? let me know), and some good starter synths, grouped by general musical quality, instead of "47 oscillators, 13 simultaneous voices", etc. More like "smooth, warm monophonic instrument. Good for solo lines; does not 'cut' well through heavy textures", and so on. In fact, don't feel limited to "starter" synths. Tell us about anything. Well, anything you don't have to be a corporation or insanely rich to buy. --- Joe M. PS - If there's a volunteer compiler or two, this will get done faster... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 18:27:00 EDT From: RAY BROHINSKY Subject: Re: faq Joe, I'm working on a new form for the tuning tutorials, based on some recent research. If you'd be so kind to send me copies of the original postings (or the digests that contain them, if that's easier--- I don't archive anything from EMUSIC here) I'll be glad to try to make a short, concise, accurate, (HAH!) entry for the faq on tuning, intonation, and microtonalism. raybro *** Nieder mit den Tueten! Freiheit fuer Gummibaerchen! *** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1991 09:54:59 EDT From: ronin Subject: Re: faq i will, of course, be happy to do some of the compiling. i think the idea of a set of sort of grouped 'subjective' articles is a good idea. i think that, for myself, i'd just start by transcribing those EM spreadsheets. i guess i'll just do that, and then we can start archiving. any recs on format? i can think of two: straight ascii text pages and compacted database or spreadsheet files. what think? -------------< Extremism in the Pursuit of Good Noise is no Vice >------- Eric Harnden (Ronin) or The American University Physics Dept. Washington, D.C ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1991 11:20:40 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: faq Sounds good. I got the Keyboard buyer's guide from last year and will be looking over it this weekend. Tab-delimited ASCII files I think will be best, because most spreadsheets can load those in as well. I'd like to see this be pretty subjective, with people telling us stuff like "I use the Borkblatter R7 exclusively for my live performances with my postmodern polka band; it has that tuba-player-on-bad-drugs sound that I need..." We might want to organize by price point; like under $1000, under $2500, under $3000, way too expensive, etc. :-) --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1991 10:36:01 CDT From: Kevin Remde Subject: Re: faq Joe writes: > > We might want to organize by price point; like under $1000, under $2500, > under $3000, way too expensive, etc. :-) Don't forget the "If-you-have-to-ask,you-can't-afford" price range. -Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1991 10:44:00 EDT From: RAY BROHINSKY Subject: Re: faq I'm for straight ascii, even though it'll make the intonation articles more difficult for me to write. Not all of us do or should use databases or spreadsheets. Most of us (dare I say all?) use editors. I don't normally subscribe to the `lowest common denominator' philosophy, but where this kind of information is being given to the `incognoscenti' (in it's original, non-defamatory meaning, which includes us all in certain areas) it should be easy to view. raybro ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1991 15:47:58 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: faq In addition to all of this, I may look into organizing the more interesting prejudices from EMUSIC-L into a "FAQ stack" for HyperCard as well. This was just an idle thought that came to me while I was kite-flying at lunch; I'll have to see what kind of data we turn up before I decide whether it'll work as a stack or not. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 09:50:11 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: faq Marshall Gilula asks "By the way, what is 'FAQ'"? "FAQ" is short for frequently asked questions, such as, "what synthesizer do you recommend" or "I have an IBM PC and want to do MIDI, what interface do I need", etc. What we are going to try to do is to distill all of the wisdom (?) of the list members into a file or a set of files, which we will then be able to send to new list members, or which can be "ordered" by e-mail from the EMUSIC-L list server. This is just to make it easier for people to get answers to those often-asked questions without their having to be answered again and again on the list. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 17:02:00 GMT From: Philip Galanter Subject: Re: faq "Joseph D. McMahon" writes: >In addition to all of this, I may look into organizing the more >interesting prejudices from EMUSIC-L into a "FAQ stack" for >HyperCard as well. This was just an idle thought that came to me If the authors do a good job in keeping the formats consistent, the best bet would be to create a template file with a "make stack" button that triggers a script to read the ascicard, and generate cards for each entry. It makes updates a lot easier... Phil =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Philip Galanter New York University phone: 212-998-3041 Research Associate 251 Mercer fax: 212-995-4121 Academic Computing New York, NY 10012 internet: galanter@nyu.edu A r t s a n d M e d i a T e c h n o l o g i e s =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 10:29:13 EDT From: Alex VIlner Subject: What do I need ??? Hello to everyone ! I have two things at my house : 386 IBM compatible (Gateway 2000) with 2 serial and 2 parallel ports AND a very simple YAMAHA keyboard, that has 1 output -- to the headphones (or amplifier). I wonder, is it possible to use any kind of software with or without additional hardware (preferably, without) to be able to make compositions, like : use several instruments one after one to record something and then be able to play it back. The keyboard itself allows 20 defferent rithms and has 100 voices that can be paired. It is also "semi-poliphonic", i.e. you can have up to 8 keys sound at a single time without accompaniment, and up to 4 with. What do I need? I am definitely not going to do some fancies there, but I would like to expand the capabilities of the keyboard by using a computer. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Please, reply to my account. Thank you in advance. Alex Vilner ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 11:12:50 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: What do I need ??? Alex, there are a couple of things you need to check first. 1) Does your keyboard accept MIDI connections? (Check the back; if you see 5-pin DIN jacks (they look sort of like the keyboard connector on a PC) labeled "MIDI in" and "MIDI out", then you're in good shape. if not, this keyboard will not be easy to interface to anything else without major-league electronic surgery. 2) You will need a MIDI interface card for your PC. This runs around $100, but you shouldn't need to upgrade it for quite a while, even if you decide to get a lot more equipment. 3) You will also need some software to record what the keyboard is doing and to play that back. This is called a "sequencer" and there are (I believe) some public-domain or shareware ones for the PC. These are probably your minimum requirements. Hope this helps. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 16:19:25 +0100 From: roth@IPS.ID.ETHZ.CH Subject: searching OMR program i E-Musicians, I'm searching for a working "OMR"-program (any: Atari, Mac, PC, Unix...). OMR means "Optical Music Recognition" and is about the same as "OCR" (Opt. Character Recogn.): with a scanner, you read in a sheet of printed music, and the computer (i.e. the OMR software) is supposed to generate a MIDI-File (or any other usable symbolic representation) out of the black- and-white-pixels. In Germany, there is one such software product aviable (from "Print Technik"), but this is not of any use for a musician, it just shows the problems of recocnition software: More than 50% of the notes on a well-printed (not hand- written) sheet are not recognized; because there is no user-interaction in the recognition process, there's no big change to get better results with this program. I now wonder if such a program (but a WORKING one!) is aviable (USA? UK?). Has anybody heard of something like this? _______________________________________________________________________ _ Martin Roth Martin Roth ETHZ, ips, IFW D28.2 |\ /|_) Mail: roth@ips.ethz.ch Sandacker 14 g 01/256 55 68 | \/ | \ (Student of Computer CH-8154 Oberglatt Science / Engineering) Switzerland p 01/850 32 75 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1991 15:06:52 CDT From: Joseph Fosco Subject: RE: searching OMR program roth@IPS.ID.ETHZ.CH writes >I'm searching for a working "OMR"-program (any: Atari, Mac, PC, Unix...). >OMR means "Optical Music Recognition" and is about the same as "OCR" >(Opt. Character Recogn.): with a scanner, you read in a sheet of printed >music, and the computer (i.e. the OMR software) is supposed to generate >a MIDI-File (or any other usable symbolic representation) out of the black- >and-white-pixels. ... STUFF DELETED ... >I now wonder if such a program (but a WORKING one!) is aviable (USA? UK?). >Has anybody heard of something like this? I don't know of anything available commercially, but I did see a demo at MIT's Media Lab of software that did this. Their software didn't seem to have problems identifying notes, and/or rhythm. It did have some problems identifying slurs, and printed symbols (dynamics, expression, etc....) Joseph Fosco Internet: b38669@anlvm.ctd.anl.gov Bitnet: b38669@anlvm ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************