Although there are many people who are as important to my music career as those I mention here, I have limited this tribute to those who are directly connected to my experiences with computerized music production.

The author was employed by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center of The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute from 1981 through 1994 under support from our foundation and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Responsibilities included management of an experimental training program for electronic assembly and a study of computerized music.

Rich Cohen, Bill Loughborough and Ira Stein are three sighted musicians who demonstrated an uncanny comprehension of how I could operate menu-driven systems without sight. Their suggestions on how to navigate menus and enter commands in the right places were appropriate and sometimes, entertaining.

Mike Babcock and Ron Alford are two long-time friends whose detailed accounts of how computers deal with MIDI data helped me trace the myriad mystery noises that decorated my music. They constantly apprise me of developments in the field.

Mike Mandel and Janina Sajka are blind musicians who put a lot of effort into building bridges between us users and the companies who develop hardware and software. They did much to convince a few software companies to issue their manuals in accessible media.

With the help of Janiece Petersen and the Friends in Art, a special interest group of the American Council of the Blind, Mandel initiated the FIA MIDI-MAG, a cassette publication for blind musicians who use computers. As an adjunct to the magazine, he, Nelson Hinman, and Tom Dekker set up a MIDI forum on the Internet for blind musicians.

I am indebted to the staff of Twelve-Tone Systems for providing me a review copy of their Windows-based sequencer, "Cakewalk Pro Audio." They have shown interest in the extent to which blind musicians can access their software.

Voyetra Technologies has made the manual for their SP GOLD sequencer available in ASCII format. Their cooperation is much appreciated.

The staff of Keyboard Magazine has granted me permission to reprint portions of an article, "Fifteen Hot Tips: Probing the Depth of MIDI on the Roland Sound Canvas" by Ernie Rideout and Doug Hanson. It makes up much of the material for Appendices D and E.

Kathy Seven Williams, my wife, has an unerring sense of what issues are important and when. With her own joyful foray into the field, she persuaded my curious but hesitant soul to explore sound cards and their software. She also suggested that developments were not going to wait while I kept updating this primer. It was time to make it available.

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