Example Midi files

Hello all,

In my throws of trying out various synths, I am really getting tired of hearing "house", "techno", or "trance" things as examples. This is not to disparage those styles, but it seems that most synth manufacturers seem to lean in that direction (yeah, I know, its their biggest market...).

Anyway, I was wondering if there were some GM MIDI files that are microtonal that I could load up in my sequencer, and use to test these modules?

Also, is it my imagination or something, but are manufacturers releasing their synths with poor quality patches only in an attempt to get you to buy their "real" sets of sounds? It just seemed that most of the sounds that I heard were just not that exciting, unless of course you are talking about the "prerecorded" demos (the ones you hit the "demo" button for). I was playing around with a Virus C today, and what I thought might be a good sounding synth had a lot of patches that were just thin sounding, or were so laden with "techno" types of sounds that I just did not find it exciting at all. I also checked out Reason (software synth), and it was completely geared toward House (and the like).

Please let me know if I am wrong on these thing. This is a perfect time for me to look for a external module for doing microtonal work, as my old machine just quit on me.

Thanks,

Mike

Michael McGonagle wrote:
> Anyway, I was wondering if there were some GM MIDI files that are > microtonal that I could load up in my sequencer, and use to test these > modules?

You could try John deLaubenfels' retuned classical music files

http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/j/d/jdelaub/jstudio.htm

Verklarte Nacht is astounding, and should be microtonal enough for testing the tuning.

> Also, is it my imagination or something, but are manufacturers releasing > their synths with poor quality patches only in an attempt to get you to > buy their "real" sets of sounds? It just seemed that most of the sounds > that I heard were just not that exciting, unless of course you are > talking about the "prerecorded" demos (the ones you hit the "demo" > button for). I was playing around with a Virus C today, and what I > thought might be a good sounding synth had a lot of patches that were > just thin sounding, or were so laden with "techno" types of sounds that > I just did not find it exciting at all. I also checked out Reason > (software synth), and it was completely geared toward House (and the like).

I don't know what it is, but I've learned to avoid the preset sounds, especially for solo lines. I must be behind the times, because it's lame imitations of acoustic instruments that put me off. I'd quite like more techno! Perhaps they are putting more work into the add-on sounds.

Graham

Mike,

{you wrote...}
>Anyway, I was wondering if there were some GM MIDI files that are >microtonal that I could load up in my sequencer, and use to test these modules?

I'm hoping Gene Ward Smith might have something. Gene? I know he prepares pieces in midi first and (often, or always) then renders a recording using Timidity (right?) which takes a midi file and creates a wav file using samples for the instruments.

In any event, if he has raw midi files of his stuff there are a lot of differing tunings, and if you could set it up for multi-timbral work, he has some 'orchestration' going on as well.

>Also, is it my imagination or something, but are manufacturers releasing
>their synths with poor quality patches only in an attempt to get you to
>buy their "real" sets of sounds?

I tend to agree, with one caveat. I've taken a look/listen at most of the soft synths people have mentioned on this list, at least if they have demo modes, and almost uniformly been underwhelmed. But the caveat is that (I think) the majority of the makers of the soft synths are somewhat new at synthesis unlike Roland, Korg, Yamaha, etc, who are building on years of architecture. The more soft synths get worked on, the deeper the sound creation capabilities will be.

OTOH, be sure to take a look at what makes up the synth - the more depth there is in programmability, the more opportunity you may have to get something out of it yourself. Development/marketing curves for software are notoriously short and fast, and I'm not surprised if they have an app ready to go before much work has been done actually creating sounds. And, yes, since they are designed to work on computers it isn't surprising that techno, electronica, and house (and whatever other current stylism) are predominant, because that *is* their market - for now.

Also, you'll have a lot better chance to influence or see changes in evolution with these manufacturers, through correpondence, then you ever would with hardware. We've seen people on this list influence developers and get tuning widgets implemented. A lot easier in software than in firmware/hardware, so don't give up.

I'm not satisfied yet, but that doesn't mean I don't see promise!

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Michael McGonagle

/makemicromusic/topicId_4317.html#4317

<fndsnd@r...> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> In my throws of trying out various synths, I am really getting
tired of
> hearing "house", "techno", or "trance" things as examples. This is
not
> to disparage those styles, but it seems that most synth
manufacturers
> seem to lean in that direction (yeah, I know, its their biggest
market...).
>
> Anyway, I was wondering if there were some GM MIDI files that are
> microtonal that I could load up in my sequencer, and use to test
these
> modules?
>
> Also, is it my imagination or something, but are manufacturers
releasing
> their synths with poor quality patches only in an attempt to get
you to
> buy their "real" sets of sounds? It just seemed that most of the
sounds
> that I heard were just not that exciting, unless of course you are
> talking about the "prerecorded" demos (the ones you hit the "demo"
> button for). I was playing around with a Virus C today, and what I
> thought might be a good sounding synth had a lot of patches that
were
> just thin sounding, or were so laden with "techno" types of sounds
that
> I just did not find it exciting at all. I also checked out Reason
> (software synth), and it was completely geared toward House (and
the like).
>
> Please let me know if I am wrong on these thing. This is a perfect
time
> for me to look for a external module for doing microtonal work, as
my
> old machine just quit on me.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike

***I tested out a Proteus 2000 in the store about a year ago and
thought it sounded just *terrible* for several of the reasons you
mentioned... thinness of timbre, etc. And for the emulation of
*traditional* instruments, which I would use with Sibelius, even my
SoundBlaster soundcard "outperformed" it...

J. Pehrson