[sdiy] MIDI isn't musical : Flame bait?

[Ingo Debus]

Hehe, big can of worms here. Let me put more oil into the flames...

I agree that MIDI isn't too musical. But that's because MIDI was made
only with keyboard controllers in mind and keyboards aren't musical either.
Yes, a note played on a guitar or sax is unique, but that's not true for
a keyboard instrument. If a great sax player plays just one note on his
instrument no-one else will be able to exactly reproduce that. But if I
or Glen Gould or anyone else plays a middle C with a given amount of
velocity on a piano, it doesn't make any difference (given no other
parameters are changed, same piano, same room etc.).

I even go so far and say that the "sterile" character of electronic
music perceived by many listeners is due to the exclusive use of
keyboards, and not because the sounds are generated electronically.

David Reichert wrote:
> Analogue tape, analogue synths! I hate digital. Has nothing to do with
> musicality and so forth. I hate digital 'cos it's not ergonomic.

And a keyboard is the most digital input device for a synth one can
imagine. Digital comes from "digit" which means finger in its original sense.

Sure, a great keyboard player can do amazing things, but nothing that
couldn't be transmitted via MIDI.

I once read an interview (Keyboards mag) with a digital piano designer
from Yamaha. He said the only difficulty with MIDI for a good piano feel
is when a key is released. This is not just a matter of release
velocity. I agree here, this is due to the damper touching the strings
but not muting them completely. Doesn't sound very pleasant to me, but
yes, real pianos behave that way. They solved it by transmitting the
travel of a key (how far it is pressed down) with polyphonic aftertouch messages.

Back to the original question, why build a "analog" resistor string CV
keyboard, or a digital one (using priority encoders, latches and a DAC)
today instead of using a MIDI keyboard and a MIDI-to-CV converter? I
can't see any reason why a non-MIDI keyboard could outperform a MIDI
keyboard in any respect. And if one wants an alternate controller where
MIDI is no longer appropriate (Theremin, whatever) the CV inputs of the
synth are still there.

Ingo