Apple MIDI Promotional Video: 1988

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thracks
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Apple MIDI Promotional Video: 1988

Post by thracks »

Not sure if this has been shared here. I've seen links floating around various other places. Lots of good MOTU action in this video, along with some amazing classic synths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sACo5QntGc
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Shooshie
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Re: Apple MIDI Promotional Video: 1988

Post by Shooshie »

Wow, thank you, thracks. What an amazing video! I mean, it's probably not that interesting to people who weren't around then, but that was where I was and what I was doing. I even saw people I knew, one that I had even taken lessons from. (Dan Higgins, the guy on the saxophone) The Opcode librarians and sequencer, MOTU MIDI and notation software, eMagic samplers, and everything else that was going on at that time were all in the film. It was an inspiring period where the future seemed to hold possibilities never even dreamed of.

But it had its dark side. Joyce Imbesi alluded to that when she said she had to have a Mac, so she just put it on her credit card. That's what a lot of us did. And you always had to have a little bit more to get what you wanted, so it kept going on the cards. Eventually, we had to stop growing our studios and start making it pay, just to pay off that mountain of debt. That took me on a magical career path I'd never dreamed of, but it also took me away from my own projects — things I'm just now getting back to. It took me 30 years to get back to what I wanted to do all that time.

It's not the same now. It's technically better in every way, but the inspiration isn't the same. The audience isn't the same. Sure, we aren't having to justify our equipment at every turn, but while we may have eliminated the fear of technology, the gee-whiz factor is also gone. You want to record Stravinsky's entire Rite of Spring, and do it YOUR way? It's been done. Ho-hum.

People used to think MIDI was a crutch for people who couldn't play. I was a player — a good one — who realized that the Mac made so many things possible to a good musician that were not possible before, to the point that having a Mac became essential. Some people interviewed in the film, including Carlos Santana, said the same; they couldn't be without it now... er... then.

Notation software was buggy and not all that easy to use, but I did it for one reason, basically: transposition. Joyce Imbesi, again, nailed it: she said vocalists sang it in one key this month and another key next month. I loved arranging, but I hated going back and recopying a score or part in another key, just because it had to be taken up a step or a 6th. Notation software made that as easy as hitting "Transpose," and then "Print." Want to remove this section from your score? Add a section? Again, just do it and hit "Print." It wasn't about not understanding score paper. Geez. I still write with score paper, but I do covet my notation software when I need it.

It was cool to see the equipment and software in the film. DP was in pre-MIDI Graphic Editor/Tracks Overview Window days. You worked in the event list and didn't question it. And here's where the "MIDI is a crutch" thing broke down: You had to record it right. If you wanted to go back and edit notes, you could, but you had to find every note in a list of a thousand notes, and you had to select each parameter and type in a number and/or letter. No big global editing sweeps, and no quick readjusting of parts. If you didn't nail it, you did it over. After doing it over and over, you got the hang of getting it right the first time. People who were good at MIDI were good players, not programmers.

And to see how things have changed. For example, the Opcode Librarians. Nobody programs sounds for hardware anymore unless they're getting paid for it. Back then it was FREEDOM! If you ever tried creating sounds with 8 or 10 buttons and an LED window that showed 16 characters, you know what I mean. We were always pushing back the walls that imprisoned us. Anyone seen any walls lately? What's that?... lack of a MIDI mute in DP? Give me a break! :rofl:

That was a good trip down memory lane, but also a good reminder of what we went through to get where we are. I was one person among thousands, but I can point to dozens of features in DP and other software that were put there because of phone calls that I made. I'd spend hours each month on the phone to MOTU, and I wrote letters all the time. (didn't have email back then, and the WWW was an academic dream) Each little change was a small victory. If I was doing it, I know thousands more were doing it. What we have today is the product of all of us who were there on the front lines, using this stuff under pressure, seeing what we needed, but what wasn't there yet.

Now we're more or less "there." Yeah, it's exciting, but now we're just trying to educate the next generations so they will feel inspired to use what we all helped to create. In retrospect, this was an historic 30/40 years. We changed the face of music and music production. It will never be like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Prokofiev again. It was time for this ancient art to enter the digital age, and nothing was going to stop it.

Well... here were are. What are we going to do with it?

Shooshie
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