Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pilot Synthesis

Posted by Hemos on from the pretty-cool-toy dept.

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.'"

3 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What next? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4

    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.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  2. Other Options by gardenhose · · Score: 4
    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.

  3. (had mary 'little-lamb) by MenTaLguY · · Score: 4

    3212333
    222
    399
    3212333
    322321

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

    --

    DNA just wants to be free...