4 ms·

Love it! I had to go back and listen to one of my favorite midi tracks - the Ultima online Buccaneer's Den theme. Using this sound font there are some really

Love it! I had to go back and listen to one of my favorite midi tracks - the Ultima online Buccaneer's Den theme. Using this sound font there are some really major improvements. Not that the original instrumentation that shipped with machines of the day didn't have its charm. I love the fact that we used to literally ship midi files around for game music - it's such a technically elegant approach and because it could be thought of as just 'musical markup' it was even trivial to add compositions to websites - when we had severe bandwidth limitations. While there's no question that the addition of a mastering step and the ability to ship perfectly 'rasterized' music (to mix metaphors) has meant we have a perfect rendition of the composer's intent and is vital for a lot of musical expression, there was always something fun about the idea that music directors were practically composing symphonies to be played by individual orchestras on each user's machine.

blt 8y ago
I agree, shipping full audio tracks is somehow too "easy". Also really love C64 SID music and Amiga tracker music.
- tapland 8y ago
  I pretty much only have old C64 music running non-stop in my headphones at work. If it was remastered to not sound like a SID-chip I wouldn't get my fix.
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    You should listen Machinae Supremacy. They are using actual SID hardware while composing their music.
codetrotter 8y ago
> there was always something fun about the idea that music directors were practically composing symphonies to be played by individual orchestras on each user's machine I like this way of looking at it. And with different sound fonts like the original vs the FatBoy sample posted on the site and ITT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veMlnxlgpZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veMlnxlgpZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uycgx8FiA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uycgx8FiA it’s kind of like we get to listen to new interpretations of the music, where the sheet music remains the same but the conductor has told the orchestra to perform it different in terms of instruments used. I think. Someone who knows about orchestra music and performance correct me if you think what I said was off base. I don’t know whether it is actually the role of the conductor to pick instruments. Wikipedia says: > The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the score in a way which reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by ensemble members, and "shape" the phrasing where appropriate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting So I don’t know who actually picks the instruments that the orchestra will use.
- samatman 8y ago
  A composer specifies which instruments play what, as a general rule. We call it an ‘arrangement’ when a piece of music is reinterpreted with different instruments.
21 8y ago
It also showcases the fundamental problem with MIDI/SoundFonts - it makes your music sound orchestry/jazzy. I know there are electronic/modern sounding SoundFonts out there, but unless they were specifically made for your song, they only partially mitigate the problem. I've also found it hilarious to listen to the MIDI version of popular songs. They always sound like kids music.
eschutte2 8y ago
To continue that thought, in an interactive setting, shipping music in source form seems like it would offer some creative possibilities (thinking of things like iMUSE here).
markatkinson 8y ago
I would be eternally in your debt if you uploaded that FatBoy UO track :) I had to go listen to the original after reading your comment and I can't believe how great it still is after all these years.
- bayindirh 8y ago
  I rendered the MIDI with VLC & FatBoy. You can get it from here: https://cl.ly/13d40e7155a5 https://cl.ly/13d40e7155a5 There should be download button at the top bar.
olau 8y ago
> ... there was always something fun about the idea that music directors were practically composing symphonies to be played by individual orchestras on each user's machine. And this is part of the problem - the latter part never developed. Sample playback is a lousy form of musical expression. I want a pianist AI that plays Beethoven the way I like. Unfortunately, there's little public R&D in this stuff - at one point I looked into the research for just synthesizing the sound from a MIDI recorded by a real pianist, and while some of the commercial actors have something that is okayish (Roland and Pianoteq), the public research just isn't there.

blt 8y ago

I agree, shipping full audio tracks is somehow too "easy". Also really love C64 SID music and Amiga tracker music.

tapland 8y ago
I pretty much only have old C64 music running non-stop in my headphones at work. If it was remastered to not sound like a SID-chip I wouldn't get my fix.
- bayindirh 8y ago
  You should listen Machinae Supremacy. They are using actual SID hardware while composing their music.

codetrotter 8y ago

> there was always something fun about the idea that music directors were practically composing symphonies to be played by individual orchestras on each user's machine I like this way of looking at it. And with different sound fonts like the original vs the FatBoy sample posted on the site and ITT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veMlnxlgpZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veMlnxlgpZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uycgx8FiA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3uycgx8FiA it’s kind of like we get to listen to new interpretations of the music, where the sheet music remains the same but the conductor has told the orchestra to perform it different in terms of instruments used. I think. Someone who knows about orchestra music and performance correct me if you think what I said was off base. I don’t know whether it is actually the role of the conductor to pick instruments. Wikipedia says: > The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the score in a way which reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by ensemble members, and "shape" the phrasing where appropriate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conducting So I don’t know who actually picks the instruments that the orchestra will use.

samatman 8y ago
A composer specifies which instruments play what, as a general rule. We call it an ‘arrangement’ when a piece of music is reinterpreted with different instruments.

21 8y ago

It also showcases the fundamental problem with MIDI/SoundFonts - it makes your music sound orchestry/jazzy. I know there are electronic/modern sounding SoundFonts out there, but unless they were specifically made for your song, they only partially mitigate the problem. I've also found it hilarious to listen to the MIDI version of popular songs. They always sound like kids music.

eschutte2 8y ago

To continue that thought, in an interactive setting, shipping music in source form seems like it would offer some creative possibilities (thinking of things like iMUSE here).

markatkinson 8y ago

I would be eternally in your debt if you uploaded that FatBoy UO track :) I had to go listen to the original after reading your comment and I can't believe how great it still is after all these years.

bayindirh 8y ago
I rendered the MIDI with VLC & FatBoy. You can get it from here: https://cl.ly/13d40e7155a5 https://cl.ly/13d40e7155a5 There should be download button at the top bar.

olau 8y ago

> ... there was always something fun about the idea that music directors were practically composing symphonies to be played by individual orchestras on each user's machine. And this is part of the problem - the latter part never developed. Sample playback is a lousy form of musical expression. I want a pianist AI that plays Beethoven the way I like. Unfortunately, there's little public R&D in this stuff - at one point I looked into the research for just synthesizing the sound from a MIDI recorded by a real pianist, and while some of the commercial actors have something that is okayish (Roland and Pianoteq), the public research just isn't there.