Kentucky Department for the Blind, Attn. Wayne Thompson, 427 Versailles Road, Frankfort, KY, 40601, phone (502) 564-4754 or (800) 321-6668.
SEQUENCER VENDORS -- SP GOLD, a DOS-based sequencer, and DIGITAL ORCHESTRATOR, a Windows-based sequencer that can synchronize MIDI files and wave files, are products of Voyetra Technologies, 5 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701-1046, telephone (914) 960-0600 or (800) 233-9377, fax (914) 966-1102, or contact their bulletin board at (914) 966-1216. Set your modem to n-8-1.
The CAKEWALK series of sequencers is a product of Cakewalk Music Software, a division of Twelve-Tone Systems, P.O. Box 760, Watertown, MA 02272, telephone (617) 926-2480 or (800) 234-1171, e-mail 74774.1773@compuserve.com. Their latest DOS-based version is Cakewalk 5.0. For Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 they produce Cakewalk Professional 4.0 and Cakewalk Pro Audio 4.11, a sequencer that can synchronize MIDI files and wave files. The 5.0 versions of the Windows-based sequencers will be on the market soon.
There is a specialized, inexpensive sequencer called "Band-in-a-Box." It provides algorithms that "improvise" accompaniments for songs in many styles. Musicians who want to hone their improvisation skills as well as music educators have found this program useful and entertaining. It is easily accessed by any screen reader. It is from: PG Music, 11266 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222, telephone (416) 528-4897.
WAVE EDITORS -- Here are two programs for creating and editing sound files. Both are economical and "reasonably" accessible. By that I mean that most features elicit enough spoken output to make them useful. Not every aspect responds to speech so you occasionally have to use logic and comprehension of navigation techniques.
COOL EDIT, from Syntrillium Software Corp., P.O. Box 60274, Phoenix, AZ 85082-0274, telephone (602) 941-4327 (for sales, only), fax (602) 941-8170, e-mail syntrill@aol.com, url http://www.syntrillium.com. There are three versions: the $25, the $50 and the $100. I strongly recommend the $100 version. It has many useful and fun features and is truly a bargain at that price.
CSOUND -- This program was developed through various grants and is free. It is available on the Internet at ftp.bath.ac.uk/pub/jpff. You can contact the writer of the manual, Bill Gardner, at billg@media-lab.media.mit.edu. His postal address: Bill Gardner, M.I.T. Media Laboratory, Music and Cognition Group, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139.
In essence, this program lets you "build" a synthesizer, compose with it and play the piece through your sound card. Compared to conventional wave file editors that you are likely to see, this program is labor-intensive. This is not for the faint-hearted.
CSOUND is available in DOS, Unix, Windows, and Macintosh versions.
ONLINE FORUMS -- Delphi, CompuServe, GE-nie, Midilink and others have extensive music forums. There is now a forum for blind computer-musicians on the Internet that can be accessed by any service that connects with it. It is complementary to a cassette publication, "FIA MIDI-MAG," sponsored by Friends in Art, an affiliate of the American Council of the Blind.
Messages can be sent to this forum at: midi-mag@maelstrom.stjohns.edu. To subscribe to this forum and to the magazine, send an e-mail message to: listserv@netcom.com, leave the subject line blank, and in the body of the letter type: subscribe midi-mag e-mail address. Participants are welcome regardless of affiliation.
BRAILLE MUSIC TRANSLATOR -- Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology, Bill McCann, President, 130 Hampden Rd. 3rd Floor, Upper Darby, PA 29082-3110, telephone (610) 352-7607, fax (610) 352-4582. This company is testing a program called "FEELGOOD" that translates MIDI files into Braille music. Future software will translate into Braille from other codes such as DARMS and the Mac-based Nightingale.
MUSIC-PRINTING SOFTWARE --
QUICKSCORE from Dr. T's Music Software, 124 Crescent Road, Needham, MA 02194, telephone (617) 455-1454. Although Quickscore runs only under Windows and is not very accessible, it is inexpensive and will print music from a MIDI file with virtually no setup.
"SONGWRIGHT," from Songwright, 7 Loudon Street S.E., Leesburg, Va 22075, telephone (1-800) 877-8070 for orders or (703) 777-7232 for technical support. This program costs $125. Several blind composers have used it to print choral music and orchestral scores of perfectly usable quality. Data can be entered from the computer keyboard.
MUSIC MANUSCRIPTOR from Erato Software, 756 East Harrison Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84105, attn. John Hawkins or Geoffrey Price, telephone (801) 486-3202 or 328-0500. This program accepts data from standard MIDI files, a synth's keyboard, or from the Digitizer Tablet. It has the advantage of being able to interpret a lot of dynamic and articulation information from MIDI data.
Although some commands can be executed from the computer keyboard, a Digitizer Tablet is required for most of its operations. Furthermore, much of its screen output is in DOS graphics, rendering it virtually inaccessible to screen reading programs. If you can depend on consistent sighted assistance, the versatility of the program makes it worth consideration.
The basic program costs $375. If you buy the package that includes the video card and two monitors -- one for displaying text and one for displaying music -- the price is $2,000.
SCORE -- from San Andreas Press at Stanford University, telephone Leland Smith at (415) 856-9394 -- accepts data from MIDI files and from the computer's keyboard. Dynamic and articulation markings can be entered via an ASCII file. Score provides limited playback through the PC's internal speaker or through a MIDI system. It produces printout suitable for publication and costs $875.
As of this writing, several blind musicians are working with Mr. Smith to streamline some routines and thus make Score easier to use with speech output.
NOTE PROCESSOR -- available from Thoughtprocessors, 56 Bayley Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10705, telephone (914) 969-2663. Although still available in a DOS version, this program will not be updated further in this form. Steve Dydo, its developer, is now employed by Voyetra Technologies and is planning to integrate Note Processor with Voyetra's Sequencer Plus within a Windows-based package.
Note Processor costs $300, but you get a discount if you are employed in education. It accepts input from MIDI data and from DARMS files. It can print in a number of fonts and works well with speech and screen enlargement software such as Vista.
SCANNING SOFTWARE -- MIDISCAN (for Windows), converts print music into MIDI files. As with any scanning activity, total accuracy is rarely achieved. Sighted assistance is recommended. It is available from Musitek, 410 Bryant Circle Suite K, Ojai, CA 93023. A demonstration copy of the program can be downloaded from CompuServe by typing: go midiscan" and locating the library entry 17.
MUSIC TYPEWRITER -- The Music Print Company of Boulder, Colorado manufactures, to order, an electronic typewriter for producing music. For information and ordering, write to: Music Print Company, P.O. Box 17608, Boulder, Co. 80308, telephone (303) 499-2552.
EDUCATION CURRICULUM -- "MUSIC-WRITE," Music and Arts Center for the Handicapped, University of Bridgeport, 600 University Avenue, Room 213, Bridgeport, CT 06601, Attn. David Goldstein or Louis Terricciano, telephone (203) 366-3300, fax, (203) 368-2847. Music-Write is an education curriculum developed expressly for use by blind and vision-impaired musicians. It is a good source of information concerning the accessibility of music software. The faculty is conducting a survey, and upon request will send you a questionnaire in the medium you prefer.
MIDI FOR MUSICIANS by Craig Anderton, 1986, published by Amsco Distribution Center, Box 572, Chester, NY 10918, tel. (800) 431-7187.
MUSIC THROUGH MIDI by Michael Boom, 1987, published by Microsoft Press, available from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic.
THE COMPLETE MIDI 1.0 DETAILED SPECIFICATION, available for $49.95 (plus shipping and handling) through MIX Bookshelf, 6400 Hollis Street, 10, Emeryville, CA 94608, (800) 233-9604 (or 510-653-3307) (Fax:) 510-653-5142. MIX BOOKSHELF accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover Card. Request item #3535.
It can also be purchased directly from the MIDI Manufacturer's Association (MMA), for $49.95, plus postage. Send payment to: MMA, PO Box 3173, La Habra, CA 90632-3173. Orders can also be transmitted via e-mail to MMA@Earthlink.net.
The 1995 edition is fully updated by the MMA and provides details of all approved MIDI messages and recommended practices including: MIDI 1.0, General MIDI, Standard MIDI files, MIDI Show Control, MIDI Machine Control, and MIDI Time Code. It also includes a tutorial on music synthesis and MIDI for those who may be unfamiliar with musical instrument design.
ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN and KEYBOARD are long-standing sources of valuable information. You can order ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN by calling (800) 888-5139.
KEYBOARD Magazine, telephone (800) 289-9919 for subscriptions; editorial office 411 Borel Ave., Suite 100, San Mateo, CA 94402, telephone (415) 655-4308. Oriented to the keyboard player, it covers acoustical and electronic keyboards.
MIX BOOKSHELF is an excellent source of books on electronic music. See address above.
For those who browse the Web, there is a home page for MMA at which you can locate an abundance of info on MIDI. They don't let you download the detailed 1988 v. 1.0 MIDI Specification; you have to buy it. Their WWW Site is at: http://www.earthlink.net/mma
The MMA is the prime source for information on MIDI technology, where companies join together to forge the standards upon which MIDI compatibility is built. If you are a hardware manufacturer, software publisher, or developer, you are eligible for membership. Check the MMA Member Services area on this site.
While its publications (and this site) are available to anyone with an interest in MIDI, the MMA organization and most of its services are solely for commercial ventures. If you are not a commercial venture and have questions about MIDI which are not answered by this site or its publications, you should contact your local retailer, specific manufacturers, or perhaps one of the following for assistance:
International MIDI Association (IMA) 23634 Emelita St Woodland Hills, CA 91367 (Tel:) 818-598-0088 (Fax:) 818-346-8578
International MIDI User's Group (IMUG) P.O. Box 615 Yonkers, NY 10703-3430 (Tel:) 212-465-3430
Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities, 525 Middlefield Road, Suite 120, Menlo Park, Ca 94025-3443, Telephone (415) 322-7050, fax (415) 329-8365, orders (415) 322-3307, e-mail, xb.car@forsythe.Stanford.edu. This organization is systematically transcribing standard classical music repertoire into Standard Midi files and into DARMS files which are used by some music-printing programs. This group also collates research on the latest developments in musical codes and their uses. The person to contact for the latest information is Eleanor Selfridge-Field.
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