Topic: The interpretation of midi velocity
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/icmc/bbp23...w=fulltext
An interesting paper on the subject,
Warmest regards,
Chris
- sigasa
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- jcfelice88keys
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Re: The interpretation of midi velocity
Hello Chris,
Yes the submitted paper is "interesting" all right. It consists of four pages of single-spaced text with zero paragraph indentations, and contains many dozens of run-on sentences signifying essentially nothing. I was hoping to find a way to interpret, or at least how to interpret MIDI note-on velocity with this paper based on a scientific method of asking a question, do background research, proposing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis with an experiment and troubleshoot the procedure, analyze the data and interpret the results to see if the results align with the hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion that is repeatable and reproducible. Such was not the case.
If I were grading this paper, I would have rejected it for circular logic and a conclusion that is the opinion of the writer. This massive waste of energy, time and research funds could be reduced to only three sentences as taken from the paper:
1) <Very first sentence> ".... the MIDI standard does not specify a MIDI key velocity to be interpreted."
2) <Third to last sentence before the references> "... we are free to choose <midi velocity> as we please."
3)< Next to last sentence before the references> "... my suggestion is to adopt a dynamic range of 60dB ..."
Now, if I am wrong, please point out the so-called interesting parts of this academic paper that states nothing. Sorry to take such a negative stance about this paper.
Cheers,
Joe
Last edited by jcfelice88keys (10-06-2020 00:44)
- xooorx
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Re: The interpretation of midi velocity
jcfelice88keys wrote:
[...]It consists of four pages of single-spaced text with zero paragraph indentations[...]
The linked page just shows a raw text dump of the paper's text.
The actual paper, properly laid out with graphs, equations, tables etc, is available by clicking the "PDF" button in the top corner of the page.
The hypothesis was that implementors would most likely choose a logarithmic relationship of velocity to amplitude.
The empirical result was that no, actually, the implementations surveyed mostly related velocity to RMS amplitude, either closely or exactly, but with sometimes very different dynamic ranges.
The conclusion was that, "to be consistent with commercial MIDI synthesizers" you could choose to use RMS amplitude, but that having made that decision you would still need to select a dynamic range.
- marcos daniel
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Re: The interpretation of midi velocity
I find it very interesting, I don't promise anything, but I think I'll try to use the procedure described in the paper to generate velocity curves for Pianoteq based on internal sounds of my digital pianos...
- Smilie
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Re: The interpretation of midi velocity
sigasa wrote:
An interesting paper on the subject [of midi]...
Very interesting... it all comes down to 'perceived' velocity and that's just how it should be as the end result is made for and made by humans. I really can't tell the difference between note-on values in the range of 65-70 and those in the range of 63-58. Nor can I tell if a given note is actually above or below 64 when played against other notes that might be softer or louder in comparison. My poor brain just perceives it as either louder or softer than the general cacophony it is enveloped by.
This kind of discussion reminds me of those fabulous trompe-l'œil artworks, it's really down to the beholder to differentiate and interpret what the eye records and so, too, with music velocity is a mechanical means to convey something musical (or not as the case might be.)
Well, that's enough of my diatribe, thanks for sharing the link I like to read articles like this.
- theinvisibleman
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Re: The interpretation of midi velocity
when midi 2.0 comes in we will be taking about thousands of velocity layers.
midi 2.0 is a game changer