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> Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 21:56:32 +0000
> To: csound@noether.ex.ac.uk
> From: Richard Wentk 
> Subject: MIDI is evil? You've got to be kidding!
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> At 11:28 18/03/97 -0800, you wrote:
> 
> >No one seems to be mentioning that MIDI is exactly what finalized the
> >devision between the "Academic Curiosities" and the pop world in the
> >FIRST PLACE. Lest we forget...
> >

Richard Wentk writes:

> Csound is supposed to be flexible. But consider how easy it is to use a
> MIDI sequencer to put a score together instead of typing it in line by line.
> 

[snip]

Of course it is easier to do certain things with a MIDI sequencer--because that 
is a much more specialized software environment, which makes some tasks much 
easier by limiting the set of tasks that are possible.

I liken it to a French chef's knife.  Virtually any cutting task in the kitchen 
can be performed with one.  Sure, some tasks can be completed more easily with 
more specialized tools (e.g. vegetable peeler, food processor, etc)--but if all 
you can afford is one tool, or if you just like to keep your life simpler, go 
for the knife.  (And, of course, after acquiring some facility with it, you find 
that you can chop that onion almost as fast as the food processor: with more 
control and less mess, too!)

> 
> Now, of course you can create software to write a score file, but how much
> flexibility does that really give you in comparison? All you're really
> doing is exploring different parameter positioning algorithms. Whether you
> use neural nets, stochastic techniques, genetic algorthms, chaotic systems,
> or whatever, this does not, on the whole, seem to make for interesting
> music. (Although as an intellectual exercise, akin to solving chess
> problems, it may have its attractions.) 

With all due respect--duh!  Whether you compose with major scales, minor scales, 
whole-tone scales, twelve-tone rows, octatonic scales, power chords, or 
whatever, this does not, on the whole, seem to make for interesting
music. (Although as an intellectual exercise, akin to solving chess
problems, it may have its attractions.)  Systems and techniques do not make 
interesting music; composers do.

> In practice,
> unless you have limitless amounts of time to experiment, or own an SGI, or
> are only after some squeaky sound effects, [csound]'s a rather blunt and
> unresponsive implement. Good for teaching, maybe. But not so good for
> genuinely original music. (If not, how come so much of the music made with
> it sounds so similar?)

[does it?]  Probably for the same reason that so much MIDI-made music sounds so 
similar.  Or be-bop. Or integral serialism. or....

> Really, adding new ugens is only papering over the cracks. (Although I have
> to admit that Richard Karpen's new pvoc ugens are a *lot* of fun.) IMO a
> look at how to overcome the limitations in the control structures and the
> table system would be a very fruitful path to follow at this point.

Everybody's for making csound as powerful and easy to use as possible.  (And 
many thanks to those with more programming skill than I who are continually 
working on that.)  But you seem to want to see csound move in a direction that 
would destroy the very thing that makes it useful: it's ability to do things 
that commercial environments can't.  MIDI already does MIDI resonably well; why 
should csound try to do the same?

As far as moving from playing with sounds to making interesting music, that's 
always been the crux of composing, in csound or any other way.

__________________________________________________________________
|Craig Weston--Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Composition, |
|              & Electronic/Computer Music, Iowa State University|
|                                                                |
| cweston@iastate.edu                                            |
| http://www.music.iastate.edu/theory/weston/                    |
|________________________________________________________________|