I've paid to see many great live acts where MIDI keyboards, even MIDI pickups on guitars were part of the act. They sounded great. Earth, Wind and Fire is one such example, the "new" outfit that's been going around. While I think that the old lineup did the singing a bit more to my liking, the use of the wireless guitar jack and a guitar tech hidden away sending MIDI amp/cab/effects at just the right moments let the guitarist be free to just play and dance. The keyboards? M-Audio 88 key pro controllers, could not see any of the great MIDI patches heard on the stage at all, presumably again there was at least one keyboard technician backstage, maybe not. BUT -- covering all their great old songs and having the exact right sounding keyboard patch when needed sounded great. To my ears, anyway.

Local bars, 'nuther story anyway. That scene needs to die the death it is creating for itself and that's not a fault of MIDI at all. I've seen a few rather poor performances going on in the local venues with not a single MIDI anything involved. And, yes, I've witnessed the mess when there's the one performer with the usual guitar and the MIDI files likely downloaded for free from the Internet and played back on everything from pocket sized mp3 players to laptops loaded with sequences. Believe me, the MIDI files are only one part of their problem. The fact that they can't hear how bad they sound should speak volumes for how little they know about the craft, but typically their playing and singing abilities say it all, whether they used MIDI or not wouldn't help.

Maybe you should find out how much money they're not making.


--Mac

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