Practical MIDI

As I was looking up the facts of a particular band, I noticed this the web site also included references to other bands that were related to this search and it got me to thinking about how bands change and musicians tend to job-hop, so to speak. Maybe they get bored doing what they’re doing and need a new challenge. I don’t know. But sooner or later they pop up again in some other configuration.

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I’m sure by now most of you have heard the story of George Harrison’s court battle over his alleged plagiarism of the Chiffons’ 1960 song, “He’s So Fine.” For those of you who haven’t heard, it happened soon after George’s 1970 hit, “My Sweet Lord” climbed the charts as a million-selling number one hit. Seems George had the former song in the back of his mind when he wrote the latter. He was ordered to pay $587,000.00 over the copyright infringement case. In another ironic twist to this story, George’s manager, Allen Klein, bought Bright Tunes Publishing, which held the copyright on “He’s So Fine.” So Harrison ended up owning both songs.

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Hard to believe it’s been six years since the inception of Cybermidi.com but that is a fact. The sixth anniversary—that’s quite a milestone. Let’s see if we can come up with an appropriate gift to commemorate the occasion. In fact, how about if we start from the beginning and work our way up to this event? What songs would go with each anniversary, in this respect?

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A couple of columns back I suggested to Flash that maybe what we MIDI users needed was some sort of forum to be able to talk to each other and to share our midi experiences. Well, Cybermidi is pleased to announce the recent opening of the new MIDI Users forum. Check it out and take advantage of this great opportunity to learn more about MIDI or to share what you already know. This should be pretty exciting to finally be able to have a place to come with your questions or expertise.

There are already several forum topics in place just waiting for you to jump in and hang on. We’d like to hear from all of you out there regarding more topics that you’d like to see discussed or just join in to the ones already there. Feel free to ask your MIDI or musical questions. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll try to find out for you. It’s FREE so sign up today and let’s get this MIDI ball rolling. Here’s the link. Be sure to put it in your Favorites List:

http://www.midiusers.com

In my line of work, which is a solo MIDI artist, I’m constantly on the lookout for new and easier ways to do my job. In my columns and the column from Dave Gash, we explored the procedure of converting MIDI files to WAV or MP3 so that performers without a MIDI capable keyboard could do a solo job using only an MP3 player or perhaps a CD player. That way you could add background vocals–an option not available when using just MIDI files. The programs are pretty plentiful and often free (or shareware).

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