A Brave New World!

[Dick Glasgow]

Don't these vile objects just make you want to weep?

Midi Concertina

Midi Bagpipes

Midi Saxophone

Midi Violin

I'm sure the likes of Stradivari, Wheatstone & all other creators of wonderful, natural musical instruments, will be weeping buckets in their graves now!

Granted, the Concertina still looks like a Concertina, but how long before that lovely old box shape we all know & love, becomes a shinny, gaudy coloured plastic or metal mockery of the original?

Can you honestly picture those Midi Pipes being played at a Burns Night?
Let's be honest, if Burns came back, I think we all know where he'd stick that Pipers plastic Midi Chanter!

Quite frankly, I really don't care how close they come to sounding like the real thing they are just WRONG for me, on oh so many levels!

Take a look at this wonderful photo of a Mongolian Orchestra
Look at all these fascinating instruments, which took thousands of years of development, thanks to the efforts of countless musicians & master craftsmen instrument makers, to reach their stage of perfection. Is this how we are going to treat all art forms in the future?

Now picture that same orchestra, standing there, each with some vile looking modern, high tech Midi equivalent of their ancient & traditional instrument in their hands!

If that's the future of music, all I can say is ................... I'm glad I won't be around to see it!

Is this how we are going to treat all art forms in the future?
Maybe we should just paint a Smiley face on the Mona Lisa while we're at it!

Here are a couple more options you might like to consider: A modern Midi Lisa










But seriously, are the Dippers of this World, really just wasting their time? ................

[A Coulter]

Feb 8, 2009 12:19:45 GMT Dick Glasgow said:

Don't these vile objects just make you want to weep?

Midi Concertina

................

The poor thing looks as if it's terminally ill on life support and ready for the last rites

[Dick Glasgow]

Oh if only, but I fear these beasties are actually going to run & run!

Still, there's no accounting for taste, is there!

Cheers
Dick

[ishtar]

"The new 6 string electric violin model is also available as a 5 string model, or even a 7 string model."

So you could say "I play a 5-stringed 6-string violin"?

[guran]

Ptarmigan,
Waiting for some opposition on other items I jump in here for a change...:-) I do sympathize with your basic view on electrifying the 'original' concertina but I have to confess I have been in that 'business' myself for a while and being an incurable innovator I even started up by patenting a 'new' "concertina" concept some 15 years ago but skipped going further when realising the immense potential and speed of development in musical computer based systems

1. In my view it is absolutely senseless to 'electrify' traditional acoustic instruments of any kind, precisely as you mean yourself. They are all one way or other fundamentally based on some kind of physical/acoustic principle.
2. The *sound* = "tone" of any musical instrument can be sampled and reproduced to audible perfection digitally so we truly need NO other device at all except the controlling "interface" between man and computer and that may be a keyboard, a touch screen, light or electromagnetic field (like with the Theremin) etc
3. Trad acoustical instruments will survive more or less from nostagly or concerning symphonic instruments from conservatism among performers and audience conditionally someone is stupid enough producing them for almost no profit....
4. Historic ensambles and trad folk music players may continue as long as old instruments not fall apart. We belong to that category, don't we?
5. My "concept" was an example of 2 above, I had expectations to use an "ideal" keyboard, consisting of a programmable "matrix" wireless keyboard being a mixture between the common typewriter/computer keyboard and the 5 row buttonaccordion keyboard. Being programmable meant that several dozens of known squeezebox keyboard systems would be practicable with the same physical keyboard and having buttons with inbuilt touch control of both amplitude and sustain it would combine options otherwise offered separately in pianos and organs. You would be able to articulate a keyboard like a string instrument.
Why did I skip the fairly brilliant idea? Because I am absolutely convinced that we will have similar (freely programmable)"virtual" keyboards any day now and be able to "play" what we like on the desk, or the body, or in the air, or whereever. A bit like the Theremin. Every 'known' instrument sound can be simulated, expanded, modified and the whole palet of other "electronic" sounds can be produced. We ( or our descendants rather ) will have such immense possibilities and that is just to congratulate. We (*ourselves)* may stick to our traditional habits and little boxes and I will be as content as yourself with that limitation...:-)
Goran