Made for the midilib custom SFX instrument project
And in action:
The animation is taken from one of my other projects. The palm tree image is adapted from the tutorial The basics of Painting with Maths by Inigo Quilez.
Hi @jasondelaat:
Is the original "seashore" midi instrument randomly timed for its surf crashes ? I was thinking about the hard work you are doing here and came across this video.
If it's truly free as it states it maybe *cough* instrumental to you and your Pico-8 library.
Hi @dw817,
My understanding, which may be wrong, is that there really was no "original" seashore instrument/sfx. Or any other GM-1 instrument for that matter.
General Midi is more of a standard/specification than a particular implementation and the specification doesn't actually define how the sounds should be produced but just the names. For the sound effects in particular that means you'll get a lot of variation in how they sound between implementations/manufacturers. So while it stands to reason that there must have been a first implementation of seashore I don't think it makes sense to call it the original implementation. Being first doesn't give it any special status, it's still just one among many.
So, to (sort of) answer your actual question: It's possible some implementations of seashore were randomized while others were not but I don't actually know with any certainty.
Mine's not randomized because, to the best of my knowledge, there's no way to do that in the tracker. You could add randomization by manipulating the sfx data in code. But my understanding of the project is to (attempt to) recreate the GM-1 instruments as sfx instruments; I didn't want to add code because that would make it harder for people to use.
I made the same assumption as @jasondelaat, but looking up the old GM-1 standard's page on midi.org to confirm:
> General MIDI's most recognized feature is the defined list of sounds (or "patches"). However, General MIDI does not actually define the way the sound will be reproduced, only the name of that sound. Though this can obviously result in wide variations in performance from the same song data on different GM sound sources, the authors of General MIDI felt it important to allow each manufacturer to have their own ideas and express their personal aesthetics when it comes to picking the exact timbres for each sound.
So, ah, yes - there were versions of these sounds predating the standard, but there are no standard versions. Any pre-existing versions, like the one you linked, @dw817, are better understood as potential inspiration than authoritative sounds.
[Please log in to post a comment]
