>>GM is evil as anyone whos listenes to a dozen or so GM sequences that don't
>>translate well between boxes knows.
>>	A far better effort would be to support DLS 1 which is a
>>standard that allows samples/multisamples to be packaged with a midi file
>>similar to a mod file.  That way the music arrives sounding exactly as the
>>composer intended it. GM is so restritive andm its dead.  DLS1 specs will
>>be released soon.
>>Check out these links:

GM is not evil...it is one of those unfortunate things that happens when
technology and the markets need for a standard don't quite match up...but
for all its faults there can be some interesting work done with GM...I've
been working with GM for the past year and I must admit that I also thought
that GM was useless until I saw what could be done with it when a little
imagination was applied...I worked as the sound editor for a game called
Obsidian which was authored in mTropolis...one of the interesting things you
can do with MIDI is to mute/unmute tracks in response to users actions
thereby creating an interactivity that you can't achieve with DLS or samples
alone (try muting and unmuting 12 tracks of sample based music while keeping
them in synch)...another interesting technique that was used in Obsidian was
to pitch bend entire groupings of instruments relative to where the cursor
was in the scene...mTropolis gave us the ability to run samples and MIDI at
the same time (you can sync the samples to various things like cells in a
quicktime movie as well as user action etc) and this could be seen as a
similar arrangement as DLS...as for the success of DLS: where is the
Soundfont standard now? it seems to me that either MOD or RMF will probably
win the standards war in the "multi-format wrapper" arena...despite any
negative feelings about GM it is *not* dead...just the opposite: game
developers are very intrigued with being able to use samples & MIDI and are
looking to authoring tools for the ability to work with both in a multimedia
title...yes, GM does not guarantee compatability across all soundcards (I
spent *many* days tweaking MIDI files to play back correctly on various
platforms) and yes there are many restrictions in what kind of sounds are
available but again by using usual ranges of instruments combined with
layering (additive synthesis?) different instruments you can achieve some
very astonishing results...Csound is not going to become contaminated by the
inclusion of GM, it will just have yet another dimension to it...just my $.02...
_______________
<> kim.cascone <>
<> anechoic <>
<> heavenly.music.corporation <>
<>anechoic@sirius.com<>
<>http://www.silent.org/anechoic<>

<>sound.editor - headspace<>

"the medium is no longer the message...the tool is now the message"
____________________________________________________

"the meta-designer creates context, not content"
    - Gene Youngblood

first of all, did i miss something? is there some big GM development in
csound?

> been working with GM for the past year and I must admit that I also thought
> that GM was useless until I saw what could be done with it when a little
> imagination was applied...I worked as the sound editor for a game called

that's the thing. you have to bend over backwards to create something
interesting.  so why bother, unless you are restricted to using it (such
as doing sound for a game).  

Csound is known for being just the opposite(too "open" with a high
learning curve)

> very astonishing results...Csound is not going to become contaminated by the
> inclusion of GM, it will just have yet another dimension to it...just my $.02...

i think there are too many opcodes as it is, and would like to see
plug-in-able GM so i could leave it out, but i would prefer the
inconvienence of some thing taking up space that i dont use over
leaving out something that people might find useful. 

(by the way i saw Obsidian a day i was at Headspace, and the sound WAS
cool!)

-matt