I've put off posting this for a long while. I had two pages of detailed notes to back it up, which I managed to misplace. ADD sucks. So here's the short version. (I'm breaking it out from the MIDI Styles thread so we can get a true gauge of the response. And if I ever find my original notes I'll be sure to post them here. Mostly it has to do with fairly obscure artist names in case you wanted to do some deep research. )

The people who make these kinds of music* are often classically trained. Sometimes you have to listen closely to know (Enya, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream); other times it's obvious (Kitaro, William Orbit, Robert Miles).

The point is, there is potentially a great deal of crossover among these genres, to the point that revoicing patches from natural instruments to synths (Walter Carlos, Tomita) and vice versa can be all the difference that's needed. Take most any of them and slow them down and you have a useful ambient thing going. Speed them up and you're in rave city. Hybridize them and there are no boundaries.

This can make it real economical for the PG developers. I'd like to see dozens more Styles in this area. It may sound like a fringe investment, but I believe that a lot of customers would make good use of them. (Actually, I'd like to develop them myself, but I'd rather spend time making music than be learning the sorcery of the Style Maker.)

The selfish truth is that I get a lot of inspiration from PG's "techno" offerings and I'm hungry for more. Some of my best stuff is based around a handful of them. I'd love to just be able to scoop them up and go crazy(er). Do it for me/us, please. I promise I'll make beautiful music for you.

Signed,

Ryszard ze artiste


*Techno is in quotes in the subject line because PG Music uses it to cover an awful lot of synth-driven styles that covers my area of interest, not just the narrowly defined subgenre that is actually called techno.

+1

I agree. I sometimes am discouraged by the number of comments I see that assume the most important capability of MIDI is to emulate traditional instruments. I am most entertained by the things that are impossible for traditional instruments to accomplish and can only be done by MIDI and computers. These are new capabilities that can advance music into new territory and create new genres.

However, I don't think this forum is the best place to look for people who share this view because I don't believe it is frequented by a representative cross-section of BIAB users. We all understand that the regular forum contributers are typically older and not much interested in new sounds or new genres.

But a lot of this can already be accomplished by simply ignoring the BIAB style labels and GM instrumention and substituting unexpected MIDI sounds and patches along with new loop capabilites. This can definitely make any MIDI style sound completely different than its original intent. That to me is the most important argument for MIDI development in addition to more RealTracks.

But it sure would be nice to see these concepts appreciated in new MIDI style development.

+1

A super big +1

I am a big fan of Kitaro, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Tomita. Another one of my favorites is David Arkenstone. I am a huge fan of New Age, Classical and Ambient music.

One tip I can give is that if you take some styles, slow the tempo down to 40-50bpm and replace the sounds with synth pads you can extract some very good New Age and Ambient songs. But it is a hit or miss situation.
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Cxp-I will agree that some here view midi as dead and choose to use RealTracks. Many, I believe, view midi synths as emulators of acoustic instruments. While with enough money invested in sounds and midi controllers synths can become good acoustic emulators they expect the same thing to happen with GM and it ain’t!

I will also respectfully disagree about this being the wrong place to share this. The more diverse BiaB can become the larger the potential sales. Also the latest improvements in BiaB on the midi side tells me that they also think midi is alive and well.

I should let you know that I am one of the older members here and I always have been interested in new sounds and genres. In fact I incorporated and played a midi guitar controller with three tone generators in my wedding band years ago and great success doing so. Please don’t try to stereotype all of us old timers

+1

Yeah, I'm an older member also (55) and I love the Kraftwerk, etc stuff. Dabbled around a lot with Reason (Richard knows). Adding these type of styles to BIAB would GREATLY enrich our creative horizons.

I have been mainly using RTs, etc, simply because the MIDI styles are lacking what is being requested here. The only reason I would want to do something in MIDI would be in Techno/New Age/Ambient, etc Genres. I am not interested in trying to emulate things like a sax or a guitar in MIDI... that's where I use RTs.

Cheers,
Mike

I'm an old guy too, never even heard of any of these bands. I use RT's all the time, but sometimes to get exactly what I want use MIDI. I use sounds that were born MIDI when I do, cause emulated sounds don't sound very good to me unless you are a "Very Talented" controller player. I still think it's important part of PG music to continue MIDI development like the new Super Tracks. I'm all for anything to make better music, more genres and ST's = equals mo happy campers. So 1+ for me too Ryszard!

+1

Can definately use those types of styles - all the time. Maybe could be based around the new midi supertacks.

Kevin

I could use that too!

Hammer Dulcimer real tracks would be useful in celtic, new age and other similar genres

I just listened to the Real Tracks Set 158 Modern Dance Pop demo on the home page. I am impressed. Sonically this is a huge step in the right direction. The only possible improvements would be to have them available as MIDI tracks (if they aren't already) so they could be revoiced, and, of course, to have more related Tracks/Styles, also as MIDI. Well done.