> Midi being an “artist” tool places it more as a medium like paint.
I’ve used MIDI “as paint”.
Written music using code to MIDI(1), and wrote “cross instrument” music, ie using my keyboard as drum machine.
But these days MIDI is chiefly an archival method for me.
Every time I touch my keyboard is recorded, is much smaller than a comparable audio recording, by design “forced fidelity” in the recording, the music is “searchable”, and I am able to pipe the MIDI format through transcription software (which would be near impossible from an audio recording today).
I worked on a project for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. We mad a series of physical blocks that represented musical samples. The block each had a 1-wire iButton on the bottom to identify the block and context and play the appropriate sample.
Because it was the CSO the biggest part of the budget went to sample cards that played instruments up to the conductors standard. Each exhibit could create a composition and play it back like a symphony.
Sounds like a really cool project. Any links to the exhibit?
Unsure if this comment was a refutation of my own or just a fun cherry on top anecdote, but in case I was unclear I was trying to say that “I completely agree with the shorthand of calling midi ‘paint’, AND here’s a cool use case that I think is fundamental to the technology but rarely held up as a benefit of said technology, namely archiving and assisted transcription of musical composition.”
I’ve used MIDI “as paint”.
Written music using code to MIDI(1), and wrote “cross instrument” music, ie using my keyboard as drum machine.
But these days MIDI is chiefly an archival method for me.
Every time I touch my keyboard is recorded, is much smaller than a comparable audio recording, by design “forced fidelity” in the recording, the music is “searchable”, and I am able to pipe the MIDI format through transcription software (which would be near impossible from an audio recording today).
(1) http://overtone.github.io/