Re: AppleCrate Synthesizer goes multi-voice...

[email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com (Simon Williams)]

Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

<snip>
> I still haven't got around to implementing "sub-voices" which will
> provide three levels of "velocity" or amplitude.  All the support
> is in the syntheziser, but a little bit of code needs to be added
> to the compiler and some new multi-level instruments need to be
> created.

That would probably be more than adequate for this purpose. I was
wondering about that as the "organ" voice (for obvious reasons) is much
more prominent than the string and percussion voices... 

> I'm looking at implementing the MIDI "channel volume" control, but
> it will be pretty annoying to have to load even three different
> volume versions of each percussion voice--maybe there is a tendency
> to only use a single volume for these.

I recall finding the "accent" feature on my old drum machine quite
useful, though it only provided 2 velocities. Given the limitations of
5-bit sound, I'd say that providing 2 or 3 velocities on the snare alone
would be the ideal "cost-effective" solution.

Another possibility for economizing would be to use the same sample at
different pitch/envelope combinations for the open/closed hat and
cymbals... toms could be treated likewise. Though I have a feeling that
might be much easier said than done.

> To paraphrase Johnson, "[An unaided Apple II synthesizing music]
> is like a dog's walking on his hind legs.  It is not done well;
> but you are surprised to find it done at all."  ;-)

I think this dog is speaking Norwegian... [Johnson via BlackAdder]

> I'm not likely to use the AppleCrate synthesizer to listen to music,
> but it has certainly been an instructive project, with surprising
> results!

It might not replace the iPod, but I think it might be of interest to
quite a few "non-mainstream" musicians as a creative platform.

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