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Don Lewis: A Remembrance

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Some of you may be aware that Don Lewis passed away the week of Nov 7, 2022.  Don was a synthesis pioneer who created a hardware platform for controlling banks of Synthesizers (Oberheim, Arp 2600s) prior to MIDI, which he called LEO (Live Electronic Orchestra). Mr. Kakehashi of Roland worked with Don starting in 1969 and cr...

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Switched-On Q

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How MIDI helped create one of the most innovative albums in Venezuelan musical history by transcending epochs, distances, styles and production strategies By Bartolomé Díaz & Félix Carmona Caracas, Venezuela Venezuela was, and still is, and extremely musical land, a fact documented by such illustrious travelers as Alexander Von Humboldt upon hi...

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EasyController – By 42Percent Noir

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Easily connect your MIDI with Unity, Max/MSP and openFramework – and control them all at the same time EasyController is a standalone virtual tool for live performance. We use it in our audio-visual performance to map our midi controllers and presets while we are juggling between Unity, Max/MSP, and openFramework. For example, it enables us to cont...

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Ólafur Arnalds' MIDI Generative effects and Pianos that go Bleep Bloop

10571410-16x9-large Ólafur Arnalds at the Sydney Opera House Image: Prudence Upton

Ólafur Arnalds didn't start out playing keyboards. He started out as a drummer in hard rock bands. He is not alone. Yoshiki from the legendary Japanese hard rock band X Japan comes to mind. Many people forget that the piano is classified as a percussion instrument along with marimbas and vibraphones.  He has ...

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Moritz Simon Geist aka "Sonic Robots" creates Techno Music Robots!

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 At SXSW 2019, Moritz Simon Geist performed and presented several workshops on using robots and MIDI.  His new EP is created completely with MIDI controllers controlling robots he created himself.  A latency control concept for midi driven mechanic robotic instruments Geist is deeply into MIDI. His blog details a proposal for ho...

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Frank Zappa and the Synclavier.

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​In 1986 Frank Zappa  released his final studio album  in his lifetime; for the remaining seven years of his life, he would only release live concert albums.Jazz from Hell is an instrumental album whose selections were all composed and recorded by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1986 by Barking Pumpkin Records on vinyl and by Rykodis...

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The Glitch Mob's Blade 2.0-The world's most complex MIDI controller?

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The Glitch Mob has started touring with what may be one of the most complicated MIDI controllers every built.  The Blade 2 .0 was designed by Martin Phillips also who has done work for Deadmau5, Kanye and Daft Punk. Dell partnered with the Glitch Mob to provide Dell Alienware 15s computers that run Intel Core i7-7820HK quad-core processors. Th...

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Heavy Metal MIDI by Author and Punisher

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Tristan Shone A.K.A. Author and Punisher is a musician and mechanical engineer who makes heavy metal MIDI controllers, really heavy metal ! He has created a range of unique MIDI controllers he calls "dub machines" using his electronic and mechanical engineering expertise.  Tristan studied for a Master of Fine ...

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Herrmutt Lobby

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​We got several entrees for suggested content from the December 2017 MIDI Association newsletter.  One was for an article on CTRLCap from Edwin Joassart. We did a little more research and decided to do an article not just on CNTRLCap, but on the developers behind it -Herrmutt Lobby.  Herrmutt Lobby has created not just...

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Mind To MIDI

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What if you could control MIDI with your brain? Does that sound like science fiction? Actually there are lots of people who have been exploring how to connect brain waves Electroencephalography (EEG) to MIDI.  Let's take a look at how that works.  Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record electrical activity of the...

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