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Midi Conductors.... really?

 
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ausser
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Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 731
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:52 pm    Post subject: Midi Conductors.... really? Reply with quote

Hello Korgies,
Been a while.
I've been up to my eyes in things...

Straight to business.

I've been asked to orchestrate for a concert next year with a local school.
Basically a set piece for choral work but I may need to sequence a number of pieces.
In former times I simply combi-ed some judiciously edited programs here and there as representative as I could of a particular orchestration and in some cases this served well.
However my last foray into this field lead me down the complete sequence backing path as I simply had no alternative - as I thought - in order to make the piece work -
too many individual instruments and dynamics to play at once and subtlety required.

Of course when it came to the Chorusters following the sequence - well..,lets just say that I stole the show with my crazed banging on the 'Tap Tempo' and Value up/down keys.
An experience I have vowed never to repeat and in the weeks leading up to the performance, Guiness were forced to issue ration coupons in my home town.
This years performance involves a piece or series of pieces that are certainly going to require sequencing.
However, this time I most certainly refuse to engage in the Triton-DodgyEnterKey-Psycho-Tempobashing-Micro-Managing-Mania and its subsequent side-effects that I subjected myself to in the past.

Therefore, I am on the hunt for:
a) A suitable conductor program with which I can conduct the sequences live..
b) A suitable platform from which to control the software satisfactorily.

Here is what my initial investigations have turned up.

1. Midi Tapper - this by far is the most likely candidate tempo control wise.

http://www.musanim.com/Tapper/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKd4RyhivtI

Quantumly small footprint, yet it does marvellous things...
The download page gives a fascinating history of computer controlled music.
The program can be played on any laptop/pc even from 10 years ago at orgasmic latency values, your playing is actually the only real latency.
Download comes with a reprotoire of various styles of classical composers from Chopin Joplin to Bach's organ Tocatta - I was up to 4 in the morning messing with it - such fun.
It is intuative in its input UI to the actual music which is wonderful IF! you know the piece.
Some of the pieces I er... thought I knew Lol so even from that point of view its useful.
Of course I struggled with Joplins Entainer which I can play quite well on the piano, yet because of the sycopated incidentals I found it a challange with midi tapper.
However with 2 fingered practice I'm sure I could master it and give the 2 fingers to the 10 fingered piano forte world.
I mean why use 10 when 2 will do, you could get more pints in that way.

I also tried a recent piano track I'd recorded for a project - to my surprise this was the most difficult to bring off in midi tapper - alot of er... syncopation - LoL!
but it proved immediatly that Midi tapper will read and play anything midi.
I think there is a function, something to do with grouping notes that will allow you to set the way midi-tapper 'plays' the file because as you begin to see how it functions
ie. 1 note group/chord at a tap you'll see how your interpretation of the rhythm of the piece affects the output and I think you can change that.
I havn't tested it fully yet but I presume it will output on 16 midi channels.

Of course, if your remit is to tempo-conduct the orchestra, you don't want to be distracted by the performance intricacies of a set score as your absolute focus must be on
keeping the orchestra in time. So the workaround for this on MidiTapper would be to create a rhythm track that is based on absolute time marking values eg. a simple drum track with probably 8th or 16th Hi-Hats @ volume zero, that you could simply tap the orchestra along to....


2. MidiCond.
http://www.midicond.de/index_en.html

This is a more conductor traditionale approach.
In short a fairly good optioned conductor program.
You need Java installed for the Demo to run.
Its deffinitely worth a look at the demo to see its potential.
I did find the Demo limitations frustrating as it will only play the first 8 bars of a midi file, but the licensed full version is only a tenner €10
You can test it by tapping a midi file along on your QWERTY.
My initial impressions, albiet with a fairly difficult midi file were shakey at the start, like the program took a few bars to adjust to your tempo, so you couldn't really get a good impression of how capable it is.
However, good luck ordering a license, as you'll need a Degree in Cryptography to decipher the websites protocols for accessing the purchase options.
But I did find the email address after some considerable searching.
email = http://www.midicond.de/index_en.html er... on the er... "Imprint" page?

3. Midi Conductor. - this is again a different approach, wouldn't really be what I'm looking for but it has other potentials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZS28-YpC8
and
https://github.com/madprogrammer/midi-conductor

Coding an app to accompany you playing the Rach III is no mean feat, never mind being able to play the Rach III - remember the movie 'Shine?'
However it looks like it is Linux only which wouldn't be suitable for me at the moment though I'd love to know how it works.

-------------------------------------------

I would also seriously consider something like the KOSS Pad being able to trigger the count by tapping on it much like the Triton Tap Tempo key as the KOSS pad has a much flatter more immediate feel to it than say the Triton Tap Tempo key - which is dust-particle risky to say the least.
And then there is the 'feel' response of the keyboard dual key triggering which may prove to be the safest most trustworthy form of human generated MTC input.

Batons are really not my thing - even in security situations, so I would be avoiding anything representing an air drum/stick/baton or anything of that nature.
I want to remain discreet you see...

Dynamics, particularly master volume may be a nice option, but I solely require tempo management as a priority.

Of the programs and devices I've listed above, does anybody recognize those or have any experience with them.

Y'know, I've wondered why, in the most recent iterations of Workstations, there hasn't been any dedicated conductor function given the substancial portion of certain Workstations dedicated to orchestration and sequencing.

I would also not rule out an audio solution, ie. If I were to pre-record the whole backing track and could use an app or program that would let me, by 'tapping' stray the tempo and compensate by algorithm elastiks, for want of a better expression, any delays in audio generation.

Any additions, good suggestions, pointers or Tales of Wow welcome.
Ausser.
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Will we march only to the music of time...?
Or will we march to the soul-saving music of eternity?
MLK Junior - Strength to Love 1963.
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ausser
Platinum Member


Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 731
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well Alas,
it looks like Tapper will only play a single track and not generate humanized midi time code - ie when midi-ed out thru mAudio Fastrack to the Triton, it will only send the notes and velocity data. ie it wont play Tritons sequencer.

It does have a function for Forcing Channel 1 or Play All when selecting midi channels so I'm going to try a multi-channel file in Tapper to see if will play MS WaveTable as an orchestration based on my playing of 1 channel.

Aus.
_________________
Will we march only to the music of time...?
Or will we march to the soul-saving music of eternity?
MLK Junior - Strength to Love 1963.
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ausser
Platinum Member


Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 731
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No No!
Oh Joy! Oh Joy!
Yes!
It absolutely does conduct an entire 16 channel palette from one channel.
I was thrown because I was using a single channel piano track to try to tap-conduct an orchestral sequence on the Triton.
It doesn't do MTC but it will send notes to all 16 channels on your outboard from PC if you load a multi-track midi file into Tapper.

O my Gawd! Perfect Sequence time keeping - Alleluia!

Do certainly have a look at this awesome piece of programming easily auditionable on any PC-Mac

Peace
Ausser.
_________________
Will we march only to the music of time...?
Or will we march to the soul-saving music of eternity?
MLK Junior - Strength to Love 1963.
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View user's profile Send private message
ausser
Platinum Member


Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 731
Location: Ireland

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

But Wait...
Theres more....

This my friends is IT!!!!!

https://hpi.zentral.zone/miditapper#

Peace
Ausser.
_________________
Will we march only to the music of time...?
Or will we march to the soul-saving music of eternity?
MLK Junior - Strength to Love 1963.
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View user's profile Send private message
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