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Devolution of popular music...give this a little thought, folks:


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A few hundred years ago there was Beethoven, Mozart and Bach...less than a hundred years ago there was Rogers & Hanmmerstein, Hogie Carmichael and Fats Waller....40 years ago there was the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis...30 years ago there was the Horrors of Disco...20 years ago there was Hair Metal and E-Z Listening Jazz...10 years ago there was Rap, Crap Country and Jail Bait Pop...today there's this:

 

Intelligent MIDI Sequencing with Hamster Control

 

by Levy Lorenzo

 

Abstract:

 

This project was initially fueled by the desire to explore the MIDI protocol. It was decided that this would be accomplished by building a MIDI device. I also aimed to make something novel that had never been done before. But to balance out the unusual nature of its design, I wanted to also to create something that was very musical.After much consideration of different technical design aspects and contemplating various musical ideas, I was able to arrive at a project that would fulfill all of my musical and engineering goals.An intelligent MIDI sequencer was designed with hamster control. The MIDI sequencer intelligently produced melodies by manipulating the musical elements of rhythm and note-choice. Guided by inputs based on hamster movements, Markov chains were used to perform such beat and note computations. In culmination, 3 simultaneous voices were produced spanning 3 octaves and 3 rhythmic tiers. Each voice was controlled by two hamsters: one that was responsible for adjusting the rhythmic qualities of the melody and another that modified the note sequence. With all of these elements in combination, an output was produced with very musical qualities.All of this was implemented using an Atmel Mega32 microcontroller, distance sensors, a HamsterMIDI Controller, and 6 hamsters. Embedded C programming implemented the algorithms and computations within the sequencer.Overall, this project was successful. The control between the hamsters and the musical intelligence turned out very well. The music sounds as good as I imagined, and I am very satisfied with the outcome of my design experience.

 

Photos and links here:

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/eceprojectsland/STUDENTPROJ/2002to2003/lil2/

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Well, now, Beethoven wrote Wellington's March to be played on a large travelling calliope-looking contraption that played various instruments by creating puffs of air. It was even capable of firing muskets, so you'd get the full impact of battle.

 

The music was pretty lame. It's mostly a string of French or English-themed folk ditties timed to represent one side or the other gaining or retreating in battle.

 

Self-important wankery is nothing new.

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