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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."

2 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

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  2. 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?

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