Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
You Are Not Logged In Login/Get New Account
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles.
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info
MMD > Archives > June 1998 > 1998.06.09 > 12Prev  Next


Playing Pianos Over The Internet
By Dan Wilson, London

Rob Goodale seems to think that when I suggest there are irreconcilable
delays in playing acoustic (real) pianos at a distance using a MIDI
signal I am talking about transmission time, or processing time.  I'm
not.

Let's abandon MIDI for a moment.  A pianist plays a note at A as softly
as possible.  This requires the action of pressing the key down to take
maybe half a second.  The hammer brushes the strings; hey presto ! we
have a minimum-strength note.

For Piano 2 500 miles away to produce this same sound at the same
time, it must have been instructed not only when the key started to
be pressed down, in real time, it must "know" how fast the key is
descending if its hammer is to touch the strings at the exact same time
as at A (assuming virtually instantaneous transmission).

All this would be very difficult to do using any system of key
detection.  With MIDI, no information is transmitted until the end of
the movement producing the note at A.  An acoustic piano at B then has
to spend another half second producing the note ! Synchronisation is
impossible.

However, I believe the way out of this is to drive both pianos using
MIDI, so that the pianist has to get used to soft notes coming out half
a second after he/she's played them, but loud notes almost immediately.
I suppose since most music transmitted by MIDI is pretty raucous,
nobody's stopped to think about it !

Dan Wilson


Key Words in Subject:  Internet, Over, Pianos, Playing

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   


Enter text below to search the MMD Website with Google



CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Please Support Publication of the MMD with your Generous Donation

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                                     
Translate This Page