Pilot Synthesis

augurist writes: "Own a Pilot? Think there's nothing worth listening to on the radio these days, and you could do better? Or maybe you're a frustrated composer, or (like me) have to sit through hours of mind numbing meetings. Swivel Systems has produced a General MIDI synth and associated music software for the Pilot. Their SG20 looks pretty cool, but I just wonder how fast it gobbles batteries. 'No, no, really, I'm taking notes. What? These? Earbud headphones? Oh no, they're noise cancellation units that my doctor prescribed.'"

Comments

Re:What next?

[Just Some Guy]

No offense, but I think you're misdirected on this one. MIDI doesn't sound like anything. It's a protocol.

Specifically, it's the Musical Instrument Digital Interface standard that was developed in the mid-80's by a music industry consortium. It was the first popular protocol for letting company A's keyboard send note-on/off events to company B's synthesizer (plus about 15 other types of events, if memory serves).

MIDI is used for large-scale studio automation, too. It's an easy and cheap way to, say, ramp up your mixer's treble response during the crescendo of that blazing guitar solo. Want to synchronize your light show to the drum track? Get a MIDI-aware controller. It's ubiquitous, really.

So, you see, those cheesy .mid files on the net aren't what professionals think of when they hear the word "MIDI". They think of a popular, well-defined and powerful method of getting musical or time-related events from one device to another. This little box is just a synthesizer that is designed to receive MIDI note-on events and play a sound. The box itself may have incredible sound, or it may suck. MIDI itself just sounds like any other layer-3 protocol you've listened to recently.

Review of the sequencer software:

[algae]

I've downloaded and tried out the drum machine software that comes with it, so here are some pros and cons This is for the program BeatPad, there are a couple others, including a musical notation program, that I haven't tried yet.

Pros:

• Excellent Interface: Both the melody and drum sequencers are intuitive to use, and well scaled to the pilot screen.
• Lots of patterns: you can have thirty-two each of melody and drum in four banks of eight. This will also send out a program change MIDI signal
• Flexable MIDI interface: You can set the MIDI channel for both the melody and drum instruments, as well as sending out program changes and a standard MIDI clock (good for controlling an external sequencer).

Cons:

• Only one measure: You get four beats to play with per program. If you want a longer sequence, you have to spread it over multiple patterns.
• No song mode: you can't have it play pattern A1 four times, then automatically switch to pattern B3 for two repeats, etc.
• Only one melody voice: This is a monophonic (no chords) single voiced melody sequencer. I'd like the ability at least to play a few notes simultaneously (which the drum sequencer can do), and preferably have more than one voice at once as well.

I'm getting one

[algae]

As a semi-pro composer, I'm definitely getting one of these. Hopefully battery life won't be too much of an issue, but even if it is, it's worth it. I can't think of the number of times I've had a really nice melody or beat and lost it because I didn't have some sort of a musical sketch pad to jot it down on.

Sadly, it's not out yet. Should be released this summer. I think that Casio and maybe Yamaha also have some PDA-style musical sketchpads, but since I already have a pilot, this is more appealing. Plus, the software looks really excellent.

To answer a couple of questions

[ParticleGirl]

for people who didn't read the whole article... They claim "weeks of regular use on one pair of AAA batteries " and as for price: Swivel Systems will release the SG20 in summer of 2000. Final pricing has yet to be determined, but is expected to be around US$200 for a bundle that will include the SG20 itself, the MIDI/Audio expander cable, batteries, and software including all miniMusic titles."

What would Mozart think?

[hodeleri]

There he is sitting at his table scratching away at parchment when you step out of the time portal and hand him a tiny box and headphones...

--
Eric is chisled like a Greek Godess

Other Options

[gardenhose]

If you don't want to pay $200, and you want to use your Pilot as a MIDI control / processing device, check out the Handheld music homepage at crudites... http://www.crudites.org/soundv entures/handheld-music.

You can build your own MIDI interface for $10, or get cheaper ones, they're out there. What's cool about this SwivelSystems box though is that it makes the sounds for you, instead of having an external synth. But if you want to make "real" sounds, and not $5 general midi chip sounds, build your own midi interface and hook it up to your synth or sampler or softsynth.

(had mary 'little-lamb)

[MenTaLguY]

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... damn lameness filter. No caps. Anywhere... did you see caps?