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nyykiSo, yesterday I finished the file conversion project.
When working in MIDI, (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) things happen on channels. There are sixteen of them per MIDI port. On a given channel you have all kinds of things going on. There's the most basic messages, like note on or off messages, along with velocity information to tell the instrument how hard you're hitting a note, and lots of other data like controllers to change the sound, pitch bend information, (a seperate function) something called Aftertouch or Pressure that involves how much you lean on the note after you depress the key, and lots of other stuff. One of the more important things is the program change message, which tells the synthesizer or other electronic device what set of sound parameters you want -- this is the difference between a piano sound, brass sound, or the sound of sixteen monkeys doing the nasty with a football, if you just happen to have that sound in an instrument.
Configuration changes to a MIDI rig can cause all kinds of things to change -- channel numbers, port numbers, and even program change numbers if the module changes.
I'm a big fan of Kurzweil gear. My first Kurzweil synth was a 1000GX module, which is wonderful because it'f filled with bass and guitar sounds. Kurzweil is good about providing an upgrade path for their gear, and I finally got all of my Kurzweil modules fully upgraded. But this changed the patch locations on many things, and so I had to make some rather substantial changes on where things were in the setup.
Also, I got a second MIDI interface, so I went from 4 ports to 8. This also meant I needed to make some changes on what port things happened on, and also some changes on channel numbers.
I have literally hundreds of songs and works on my hard drive. (Yes, they're backed up, both to a Zip drive and on another system) So changing all of this took forever. There is no way to do a batch change. The program I use to do all my sequencing is a DOS based program that was orphaned over a decade ago. Also, since I never finished changing files from the last switch back in 1994, I had things sitting from multiple past iterations of the rig.
All that changed in the last month, as I took the time to go through and get everything up to current specifications. Now everything is up to date, and the offshoot of this is that is that I can now just pick a tune and play it without having to futz about with making it sound correct by changing all of this stuff.
This has been a very non-creative process that involves nothing but just cranking on things to get them done while using the technical side of my brain the entire time I'm in the studio. So now that it's done I can spend my time working on the fun stuff instead, which is far more rewarding.
There is another benefit to this process, however. In my major genre directories I have "Ideas" folders that have little things that hit me in the past. In working through this process I found myself going through these as well and getting reacquainted with them, so I now have a much clearer picture of what is going on with them and what I can use from those ideas. So though it's been a non-creative process, I've also had my creativity fired by some of it, and this will give me things to work with moving forward.
Since I've been dropping to Windows after each session to save thingsto the Zip, I've also been able to clean up the directory tree somewhat and get rid of some dupes. This has also allowed me to get somethings into proper directories and make some subtle changes in the way things are stored, resulting in a much easier flow to the way things are arranged. Directory structures are also more consistent in the different Bands folders too, so stuff is not all random and willy-nilly. As I've moved through things I've made improvements in how I store things, so now everything is set up to current thinking. This has also allowed me to get everything backed up from that computer, a task that I've been concerned about for a while, so now I'm much less concerned about that machine. After all, it's a Pentium II machine, AT form factor, with a 1.2GB hard drive. It's older hardware, and hardware doesn't last forever.
So things are much better organized in the studio now, and I'm much happier about it. Now it's on to getting ready for that first album.
When working in MIDI, (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) things happen on channels. There are sixteen of them per MIDI port. On a given channel you have all kinds of things going on. There's the most basic messages, like note on or off messages, along with velocity information to tell the instrument how hard you're hitting a note, and lots of other data like controllers to change the sound, pitch bend information, (a seperate function) something called Aftertouch or Pressure that involves how much you lean on the note after you depress the key, and lots of other stuff. One of the more important things is the program change message, which tells the synthesizer or other electronic device what set of sound parameters you want -- this is the difference between a piano sound, brass sound, or the sound of sixteen monkeys doing the nasty with a football, if you just happen to have that sound in an instrument.
Configuration changes to a MIDI rig can cause all kinds of things to change -- channel numbers, port numbers, and even program change numbers if the module changes.
I'm a big fan of Kurzweil gear. My first Kurzweil synth was a 1000GX module, which is wonderful because it'f filled with bass and guitar sounds. Kurzweil is good about providing an upgrade path for their gear, and I finally got all of my Kurzweil modules fully upgraded. But this changed the patch locations on many things, and so I had to make some rather substantial changes on where things were in the setup.
Also, I got a second MIDI interface, so I went from 4 ports to 8. This also meant I needed to make some changes on what port things happened on, and also some changes on channel numbers.
I have literally hundreds of songs and works on my hard drive. (Yes, they're backed up, both to a Zip drive and on another system) So changing all of this took forever. There is no way to do a batch change. The program I use to do all my sequencing is a DOS based program that was orphaned over a decade ago. Also, since I never finished changing files from the last switch back in 1994, I had things sitting from multiple past iterations of the rig.
All that changed in the last month, as I took the time to go through and get everything up to current specifications. Now everything is up to date, and the offshoot of this is that is that I can now just pick a tune and play it without having to futz about with making it sound correct by changing all of this stuff.
This has been a very non-creative process that involves nothing but just cranking on things to get them done while using the technical side of my brain the entire time I'm in the studio. So now that it's done I can spend my time working on the fun stuff instead, which is far more rewarding.
There is another benefit to this process, however. In my major genre directories I have "Ideas" folders that have little things that hit me in the past. In working through this process I found myself going through these as well and getting reacquainted with them, so I now have a much clearer picture of what is going on with them and what I can use from those ideas. So though it's been a non-creative process, I've also had my creativity fired by some of it, and this will give me things to work with moving forward.
Since I've been dropping to Windows after each session to save thingsto the Zip, I've also been able to clean up the directory tree somewhat and get rid of some dupes. This has also allowed me to get somethings into proper directories and make some subtle changes in the way things are stored, resulting in a much easier flow to the way things are arranged. Directory structures are also more consistent in the different Bands folders too, so stuff is not all random and willy-nilly. As I've moved through things I've made improvements in how I store things, so now everything is set up to current thinking. This has also allowed me to get everything backed up from that computer, a task that I've been concerned about for a while, so now I'm much less concerned about that machine. After all, it's a Pentium II machine, AT form factor, with a 1.2GB hard drive. It's older hardware, and hardware doesn't last forever.
So things are much better organized in the studio now, and I'm much happier about it. Now it's on to getting ready for that first album.
