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Stringless Violin to Bring Soul to MIDI Music

Posted by michael on from the i-guess-that's-why-they-call-it-the-blues dept.

lperdue writes "Musicians complain that MIDI may be easy, but the results can be more than a bit cold and soul-less. This story from New Scientist says that Stanford Professor Charles Nichols believes his violin, sans strings will put the emotions back into MIDI music."

24 comments

  1. Oxymoron by andfarm · · Score: 2, Funny

    He claims that his electric violin will "put soul back into MIDI music".

    Soul? MIDI? Have we ever heard these two word togethe before?

    --

    TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.

    1. Re:Oxymoron by mholt108 · · Score: 1

      any researcher who creates a MIDI violin has too much time on his hands.

  2. Nice try, but too specific by twilight30 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Take a good look at the graphic. I'd hate to see what other string players would have to use to get any mileage out of this: Can you imagine a cello in this style? A viola?

    Never mind what a guitarist would think. Then again, they already have much more flexibility -- with straight-ahead electric pickups, acoustic microphones and so forth.

    Hazarding a guess, I can't see many other violin players picking this up and saying it'd be all that useful. I'm not a musician, so this is just an opinion (uninformed to boot), but I have taken some public performance classes with jazz guitar and whatnot. I don't know how a classical fiddler would actively choose this over an electrified violin -- surely he or she would have to spend a lot of time finessing the MIDI code that something like this would generate.

    Wish him luck, surely, but don't hold your breath...

    And how does this stop people from putting crappy MIDI on their websites ? :)

    --
    ========================================
    Death will come, and will have your eyes
    -- Pavese
  3. The real benefit by ThinkingGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IANAV (I am not a violinist) but I think the biggest advantage of a MIDI violin is simply the ability to practice silently.
    For someone like me, who lives in a small apartment where disturbing the neighbors is a concern, being able to play the violin, with all the tactile feedback of the real thing, yet without making a racket, would be extremely desirable.
    Electric guitarists, keyboardists, and drummers have had the ability to practice using headphones for years. I believe there are also attachments for the trumpet and saxophone to allow "silent" playing. This innovation (if it works as well as the article claims) just extends that ability to a new instrument.

    1. Re:The real benefit by showboat · · Score: 1

      Well I'd sure like to see that for a woodwind -- must be an electron mouthpiece, eh? I've been dreaming of such a thing for a long time. Electronic instruments can do a lot, but the ones not traditionally linked with it (e.g., clarinets) don't get much publicity. Got any informatinoal links?

    2. Re:The real benefit by mgarraha · · Score: 1

      I am a violinist. For a few bucks you can get a low-tech device called a practice mute. It's a heavy block of brass that fits atop the bridge and cuts the sound output by 20 dB, and it gives you exactly the tactile feedback of your favorite bow. The professor's invention probably falls far short on special articulation of individual notes. For varying tone on time scales of a few bars, though, it could improve on the results of a typical MIDI sequence.

    3. Re:The real benefit by syncronis · · Score: 1

      Woodwind midi already exists. It's just not popular because people think Midi lacks feeling but there is so much you can do with it. There is some famous trumpet player in Australia (I think!) that has a midi trumpet.

    4. Re:The real benefit by showboat · · Score: 1

      Sure, but I'm wondering about cost and usability.

      With this stringless violin, they're going to great pains to recreate the feel. While that may work, the cost to a user would be great.

      Now, if all you had to do was stick somthing in the bell of my horn and switch out the reed and/or mouthpiece for something else, then I'd be much happier (having my own keys to play) than having to get an entire set-up.

    5. Re:The real benefit by skotte · · Score: 2

      of some note on this point: there is a silent bagpipe system. it is simply a set of headphones, which plug into a fFingering pipe. only it's not an actual pipe, it's an electronic unit which plays a droning tone, and has touch sensitive buttons fFor the fFingering holes, and another touch sensor at the mouth. the effect, you can practice the bagpipes on the bus, at the mall, in a bar ... you get the idea.
      and that, as you say, may be the real beauty here. practice quality without pissing off the parents/neighbors/housemates.

  4. Jesus, you're right by twilight30 · · Score: 1

    That never occurred to me. Your comment should be moderated up to insightful, no question.

    Thank you -- you've made me see in a flash an overriding point to the exercise. I stand corrected.

    --
    ========================================
    Death will come, and will have your eyes
    -- Pavese
  5. I don't see much point by dar · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Aside from the silent practise thing mentioned above, I don't see much point for this. MIDI was once a reasonable way to provide a compressed version of a musical performance.


    In the ~15 years or so that midi has been out, wave compresssion has improved and hard drives are gigantic. I just don't see much call for midi going into the future.


    People don't download midi files anymore, they download mp3s.

    --
    My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
    1. Re:I don't see much point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the common people that really use midi, it's the musicians...as a matter of fact, most music you probably hear at some point in time was partly in midi form (especially those that are not live performance and include some uncommon instrumentation, drum loops, etc.)...
      midi/sampling technology makes composing easier and more independent...how about a cheap midi controller that sounds like a several grand Steinway? Especially with today's compression technology, think about what a poor musician can do with that...

    2. Re:I don't see much point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Think of this is as a multi-dimensional pitch bend wheel i.e. a MIDI controller.

      Sure if the MIDI instrument being controlled is some horrible FM-synthesis it is not going to be ear-pleasing.

      However by controlling the parameters of a nice soft-synth a nice 16bit 44KHz track can be made.

      Check out http://www.buzzmachines.com for a next-gen synth/tracker where just about every parameter can be controlled in real-time by an xternal MIDI controller.

  6. Hmmph. by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Being a violinist myself, I can say that I do not like this. Although it is nice in that it is a MIDI interface, any good violinist should rely on touch to help them play correctly. When I shift to another position, I feel the right relative position and the right amount of tension that I create in the string to make sure I nail that note. Of course, this must be all subconscious, but have you ever switched to an instrument with a higher bridge that what you had before?

    --
    I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
    1. Re:Hmmph. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Being a violinist myself, I can say that I do not like this. Although it is nice in that it is a MIDI interface, any good violinist should rely on touch to help them play correctly. When I shift to another position, I feel the right relative position and the right amount of tension that I create in the string to make sure I nail that note. Of course, this must be all subconscious, but have you ever switched to an instrument with a higher bridge that what you had before?

      But that's the whole point -- he's not producing a stringless violin that just records where the bow is moving, but rather a full range of sensors so the thing knows what you wanted, and tactile feedback with the intent that it will feel like you're actually using a violin.
      I'm very skeptical that it will work in the near term, but the entire point is to interact with this "subconscious" or cerebellar knowledge.
    2. Re:Hmmph. by BigDaddy · · Score: 1

      I don't think that this instrument precludes strings. I read the article pretty quickly but I never saw any phrases that indicated that strings weren't on the violin, only that they weren't responsible for transmitting information to the computer. The bow serves this function, along with pressure sensors in the finger board. Strings can still be used, but they information that the MIDI input gathers has no relation to them.

      --
      You can't get a blue screen on a black and white monitor.
  7. But Midi is not Music by syncronis · · Score: 1

    Midi is not just the bleeps and bloops you hear.

    Midi is better explained if you think of it almost like a language or a protocol (...kind of). You can have several devices controlled from one source using midi signals sent from the source. You can also change the parameters of the controls of several devices but it's all done from the source.

    Here's a bad example:
    I have 3 devices, a drum machine, a keyboard and a sample sequencer. All of these devices can send and recieve midi information. The control or source device is the sequencer. This is connected to the drum machine and then to the keyboard. Midi makes it possible for me to program some loops that the drum machine will play and some tunes that the keyboard will play, all without having to touch the drum machine or keyboard. (Of course, there is some setting up to be done)
    That's what midi really is. When you download a midi file off the net it's just a control file that uses your own soundcard to make the noise.

    1. Re:But Midi is not Music by divbyzero · · Score: 2

      It cannot be overemphasized the distinction that Syncronis is making. MIDI was originally designed as a realtime control protocol for use by musicians, not an offline file format for storing recorded music in a compressed form.

      MIDI can be used quite effectively by a musician to control very detailed aspects of the music, but to do so goes beyond the lowest common denominator of the General MIDI spec. Therefore, a professional use of MIDI will not allow you to substitute an arbitrary sound card, or even an arbitrary professional level synth for the particular one which the musician used when recording or writing the MIDI file.

      MIDI gets a bad rap because of General MIDI. Yes, it has some problems (too piano-centric unless you use the unreserved CC's and sysex), but the point is that it provides ample mechanisms to correct any initial flaws.

      --
      But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
      Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
  8. I need one of these by skotte · · Score: 2

    I could really use such a thing to learn to play! like, holding the bow just so really sucks, and theres actually a good deal of weight to cantilever balanced on one fFinger. this thing looks like it'd be a breeze to hold, because of the way the bow is built in. you just guide it this way and that.

    actually, on second thout, withoput the strings, you really dont know what note you're playing. there's no visual reference to guide you, it looks like. probably monstrous to play, now i think of it.

  9. Check out a similar project by divbyzero · · Score: 3, Informative

    My favorite prof Perry Cook had a similar project going at one time: the Rbow.

    --
    But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
    Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
  10. Live?! by SanLouBlues · · Score: 2

    What the heck is the point to a live performance with this thing? I could see this at something like NAMM where people care very much about both music and electronics (and the combination thereof), but otherwise I'd give it a hearty "Whoop de doo."

  11. How about an example? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Although I doubt this violin would really make MIDI sound much better, why is there no example of someone playing a song with one in this article, or a link to one. If ever there was a webpage that cried have a midi file loop in the background, this would be it.