Sad Skelton

MIDI has been with us as a standard since 1983 controlling synths and various other related musical gear.  It created a whole new way to make music in ways that were previously impossible or extremely difficult.  However it amazes me in this world of fast paced technology changes, how it has survived so long.

In recent weeks and months, MIDI has become the bane of my existence.  Normally when creating synth parts we record the MIDI data into Ableton live with a keyboard.  Have the various tracks of the song in MIDI makes it super simple to edit.  However often commands that you didn’t want recorded somehow get embedded in the tracks that you don’t want.

Last night I fought forever with why my bass track routed out through my Nord Lead 2X synth was fading in as if I had programmed in a volume envelope.  After much banging of my head and yelling at the computer, antagonistically named “Toe-she”, I finally realized somehow in Ableton Live I had mapped the volume control of another track (which was muted I might add) to the output volume of the synth.  Don’t ask me how.

Unfortunately I can’t do without MIDI, it’s too important in the production of electronic music.  But how do you replace a 20+ year old standard?  Well there are efforts being made, the most significant of which is OpenSound Control.

OpenSound Control is a protocol, much like MIDI, designed to send messages between digital devices.  However unlike MIDI, OpenSound Control is far more versatile.  To best illustrate this you can actually download a freeware app called lanniX.  With lanniX you can build virtual controls that send specific messages, much like MIDI.  However the messages carry far more versatile information at greater speeds.

For instance, with MIDI you designate a channel to send on then pass various messages.  An example would be a volume controller.  The MIDI message would have a CONTROL message along with which controller (volume is controller 7 normally).  With OpenSound control you would specify a readable text name instead of a controller number.

The other huge advantage is the speed at which OpenSound Control operates at.  Using UDP as it’s main transport protocol, the bandwidth and speed it operates at far exceed the old MIDI standard.  This just translates into no more midi delay.

I really hope this technology catches on and at some point in my lifetime we can say goodbye to MIDI forever.

We’re finally almost ready to meet the world.  We here at Sad Skelton have been feverishly readying new songs to play our longest show yet.  Hopefully we’ll have the show announcement up here within a week or so.

This site is designed as a way for us to give you a small insight into what is happening with the band, for better or worse.  Sometimes will be songs postings, new dance moves, endless ramblings but always in the spirit of Sad Skelton.

Leave a comment if you wish to say hi, we’ll try and respond promptly.  And if you’re viewing this from our facebook page, click “View original post” to see the full real deal on our own site.

bye for now

If you want to have fun in a band you really should be friends first. Our long standing friendship started before the band with Kevin Black and therefore continues after The Favourite Game ended. But though we don’t play in the same band together it almost makes it easier and more fun to work on music together.

For our upcoming show on January 30th, Kevin Black will be playing with us for some of the first set. We asked Kev for a couple songs and we’re in the process of adding some “Sad Skelton” personality to them.

It’s amazing in this day and age to be able to work on music together even when you live in different cities. We’re pulling somewhat of a “Postal Service”, a band who did a whole album in separate cities.

And now that we’re working the kinks out of the “remote” song construction workflow, we hope there will be many more collaborations with our good friends.

http://www.myspace.com/kevinablack