PC appeal.

As a professional programmer, it is probably inevitable that I have a PC
at home. I know that most people on this list don't program for a
living, and most probably don't program for fun either, but we all DO
love music and at least in some way each one of us is interested in
tunings other than 12-tET.

After months on the list, I'm still surprised at how many don't have a
home PC on which to play midi files (or .mp3 files, or .wav files,
or...). Or, who have a PC but are still running 16-bit Windows 3.1, so
can't run a 32-bit Windows program, such as JIRelay, my adaptive JI
program (http://www.idcomm.com/personal/jadl).

So I'm appealing, partly selfishly, for people to go out and buy a home
PC, or upgrade an existing one with a 32-bit operating system. They're
VERY powerful for the price these days. Yes, I know most of us don't
have extra money to burn, but music is not really "extra" to our lives,
is it?

I'm not knocking acoustic instruments; I have huge respect for anyone
who is proficient at anything musical. At minimum, a home PC can record
faithful .wav files and burn CD's, all great stuff at a bargain price!

JdL

I'm amazed at this myself, I don't understand it. I'm a firm believer that
people should be committed to organic processes. Practicing and playing an
instrument for years definitely has a significant shaping factor that is
tied to how we express our music; which is why it may not be possible for a
musician to use a MIDI controller in place of an acoustic instrument.
Comments?

However I have found that technological tools are indispensible in areas
related to analysis, prototyping and production.

Olushola

-----Original Message-----
From: John A. deLaubenfels [mailto:jadl@idcomm.com]
Sent: Friday, August 20, 1999 12:04 PM
To: tuning@onelist.com
Subject: [tuning] PC appeal.

From: "John A. deLaubenfels" <jadl@idcomm.com>

As a professional programmer, it is probably inevitable that I have a PC
at home. I know that most people on this list don't program for a
living, and most probably don't program for fun either, but we all DO
love music and at least in some way each one of us is interested in
tunings other than 12-tET.

After months on the list, I'm still surprised at how many don't have a
home PC on which to play midi files (or .mp3 files, or .wav files,
or...). Or, who have a PC but are still running 16-bit Windows 3.1, so
can't run a 32-bit Windows program, such as JIRelay, my adaptive JI
program (http://www.idcomm.com/personal/jadl).

So I'm appealing, partly selfishly, for people to go out and buy a home
PC, or upgrade an existing one with a 32-bit operating system. They're
VERY powerful for the price these days. Yes, I know most of us don't
have extra money to burn, but music is not really "extra" to our lives,
is it?

I'm not knocking acoustic instruments; I have huge respect for anyone
who is proficient at anything musical. At minimum, a home PC can record
faithful .wav files and burn CD's, all great stuff at a bargain price!

JdL

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In relation to Midi as someone experimented extensively with the inversion of
tetrads (4 note Chords) I found that the accumulated error in MIDI unusable. A
system where even the Pythagorean pentatonics is out of tune, or the error has
passed on to another degree, caused all forms of beating problems that I found
made it impossible to investigate the simplest of tuning structures. When I
can perform such operations I might join you, until then, I'm not going to sit
around and wait
-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com

Jimmy Lewis &/or Olushola wrote:

> people should be committed to organic processes. Practicing and playing an
> instrument for years definitely has a significant shaping factor that is
> tied to how we express our music; which is why it may not be possible for a
> musician to use a MIDI controller in place of an acoustic instrument.
> Comments?

I prefer acoustic instruments to electronic ones in
general. And I agree that MIDI can never fully replace
acoustic instrumentation, but not for the reason you gave.
The reasons I know of are beyond the scope of this forum.
But a musician may practice on a particular MIDI instrument
for many years and learn to make very good music with it.
And, as with anything that makes a more-or-less controllable
sound of any kind, a MIDI controller/player combination can
be used as a musical instrument in its own right, different
from any acoustic instrument. Good thing, since they're a
lot easier to tune, in principle, at least.

David J. Finnamore

Some of use prefer to use other machines than PCs! There are others
you know, and some them actually work. And yes I am a Computing
Professional.

==John ff