In a release that is sure to be as treasured a part of the computer musician’s Halloween as “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” is to normal people, the electronic music world’s most insane “instructors” are at it again. Hilarity results:
Museum of Techno Halloween Special: MIDI Control [Novation Xiosynth ad site]
Be careful, as I think they’re trying to sell you a ReMOTE SL keyboard, and only I should be allowed to do that. (The apparent message of this video: “MIDI is too hard to understand! You’re drunk and on drugs! You’d better buy a Novation keyboard!”) Then again, if you’re like me, you’ll finish this video not with a desire to buy electronics but a sudden need to, I don’t know, listen to some soothing music and try to come back to a reality that isn’t completely tripped-out and edited with Premiere, a blindfold, and an axe.
Actually, I’m fairly certain I can explain MIDI drunk, speaking of things that are truly spooky. And I probably have — blacked out about some of those bits. I can see it now: “No, CC doesn’t really stand for continuous controller. It stands for Control Change, some of which are on/off messages like sustain pedal. And what do you mean, MIDI doesn’t have data resolution? Pitch bend has 16,000 steps and you’re leaving out most significant byte / least significant byte combinations.” Imagine that slurred, and you get a sense of what I’m like at parties, or how hard it is to be my significant other.
Thanks to the Museum of Techno for adding total irreverence and humor to the usually-dry world of music equipment adverts. Keep it up, boys.
I'm ordinarily a big enough fan of the MoT that I'm willing to subject myself to product placement for the sake of experiencing dangerous levels of their latest insanity. But riddle me this: Why do Novation insist on wrapping the video with their own broken GUI so I must try multiple computers running multiple operating systems running multiple browsers until I find the same combination their developers used? My dedication has limits. Why can't they just post it to YouTube and wrap it in HTML on their own site like everybody else does?
Well, it is running in Flash player, so theoretically there shouldn't be this issue, but I've noticed it, too. Transport controls are hidden, so something is odd there. (If I hover at the bottom of the image, I can see it.)
Transport controls are hidden when it's working correctly. When it's not working correctly, they are either completely inaccessible or the video doesn't play or doesn't play smoothly. The symptoms of the lameness vary, and all just to make the Novation marketing department feel as if they're creatively involved. Is the vibrating knife really worth broken video? It's a lot like the worst antics of a record label, actually. They've found a good thing in MoT; they should just get out of the way and let it be good. The product placement was enough change. Of course, if they see this complaint, their reaction will be to ask what browser and what OS I'm running so they can fix it, rather than realize the real fix is to drop the extra noise entirely, since that will work for everyone.
what are you guys talking about
oh yeah it'stottaly screweed
[…] And when you’re done – Try to Explain MIDI Drunk. Midi Equipment MIDI Sequencers can be software and hardware and generally allow timed sequences of events to unfold at a given tempo. Other MIDI devices are dedicated to enabling performance and the sending of various midi signals ( on/off as well as values ). Aside from midi keyboards, there are midi saxaphones / flutes / piano accordians and an Australian designed ‘Digital Trumpet’ ( made by Morrison ), and a whole swagger of dedicated DJ related controllers. Mawzer controllers are high-end modular midi controllers that can be reconfigured depending on a gig’s needs. Faderfox controllers can be similarly slotted together. And pawn shops, trading magazines, Ebay and now amazon.com are littered with second hand devices. […]
[…] Music tech videos have begun to infect YouTube (you know, between footage of bunny rabbits opening letters). As the opening moments of wackiness commence, you might think the following videos from cult-success French plug-in developers Ohmforce has plenty in common with the cracked-out Museum of Techno videos we’ve been watching. […]