The idea of recording a musical performance is hardly new —
fairground organs, orchestrions, player pianos and musical
boxes were using rolls, cards, drums and discs long before
audio recording was invented!
The principle remains unchanged — sequencing records a performance (the notes and their timing) rather than the sound of the music. Before the invention of the phonograph and the gramophone it was the only way to record anything!
Mechanical Sequencers
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Digital sequencing began with the clockwork musical box — a development of the striking clock. It used a tooled cylinder which struck a comb-like metal plate within the box.
During the nineteenth century punched metal disks, paper rolls and cards were used extensively. Punched cards, for example, were employed for weaving and lace-making. But the most popular application was the pianola or player piano — an instrument already favoured by the masses that could actually play itself! Today some of these rolls and cards are the only true record of how music was played in Victorian times.
Similar technology was used in the barrel-organ which employed a pin-studded cylinder which was turned by hand. This was coupled to a mechanism which opened organ pipes or struck metal tongues. The idea was developed further into the fairground organ which produced a huge range of sounds using the power of steam. The orchestrion used similar techniques in an attempt to imitate the sound of an entire orchestra
The only limitation to nineteenth-century technology was the absence of electronics. For example, Charles Babbage developed incredibly advanced calculating machines — but the limitations of mechanical systems defeated him.
Punched paper and cards survived for a long time. In the late sixties many mainframe computers were still programmed using teletype machines and punched paper tape. Others used cards programmed using a crude hand-puncher — curious key combinations were used for certain characters!
Electronic Sequencers
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The earliest device used in electronic music was the step sequencer which was used in conjunction with a voltage controlled synthesiser. It required the musician to enter both pitch and duration of each note and then to step on to the next note. It worked — but could hardly be described as ‘user friendly’!
By comparison the EMS Sequencer 256 was highly sophisticated — it allowed real-time performances to be recorded on three layers, each containing gate and pitch (CV) signals. Despite the limitations imposed by a restricted memory — the composer had to compromise between timing accuracy and the duration of a sequence — it vastly expanded the abilities of the analogue synthesiser.
One of the first devices to move into the digital domain was included in Ken Gale’s Wavemaker range of equipment. The Digital Recording Module took the output from a digital musical keyboard and recorded the data, using frequency shift keying (FSK), onto a conventional tape recorder. This material could be ‘bounced’ from one track of the tape to another, whilst adding further performances.
The limitations of analogue synthesisers and associated sequencers were apparent to everyone who used them. Fortunately the microprocessor was to arrive to solve the problems of sequencing and musical data communication.
MIDI
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In the early eighties a group of interested parties issued a specification for the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), a system that would allow universal communication between instruments, computers and other devices. The basis for this standard was purely commercial — within a few months the floodgates were overwhelmed by new and affordable products.
One of the first MIDI sequencers was Yamaha’s QX-1. This incorporated a single MIDI input for a keyboard and eight individual MIDI outputs for instruments — unfortunately all operations were monitored through a small liquid crystal display (LCD) display.
But one machine was to do much more for MIDI and sequencing than anything so far — in January of 1984 the computer company Apple unveiled its latest creation, the Macintosh.
Computer Musicians
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The use of the Macintosh computer was tentative at first.
Early MIDI interfaces were very simple — a single MIDI
circuit could be accommodated on either or both serial ports
of the Mac. Pioneering software included Performer, a
sequencing package by Mark of the Unicorn and Composer,
designed for working on musical script.
Sequencing software allows the musician to record a rough keyboard performance as a sequence in the computer. This can then be edited freely, saved onto disk in various versions, and finally be used to ‘play’ the synthesisers. The opportunities for editing are almost endless — for example, the length or pitch of any note can be changed. Sections of music can be reversed, repeated or inserted at another point, or the tempo can be changed.
The way in which music is presented on-screen varies with the sequencer — because of the complexity of musical score a full script is rarely displayed. Instead notes are shown either as bars (of varying length to match their duration) or simply as a list of MIDI events.
Almost all sequencers can save a sequence on disk as a MIDI file. Such a file contains no information that suits a particular sequencer — just the pure MIDI data within the sequence itself.
But MIDI can do so much more — in fact it can automate an entire studio (many effects devices come with MIDI sockets). MIDI can use System Exclusive messages to tap into synthesisers and samplers, allowing sounds and samples to be manipulated and modified using a software editor.
One very powerful device was the Yamaha DMP7 — a MIDI controlled 8 channel mixer. It used standard MIDI note and controller messages to gain access to every control. Uniquely, it allowed the user to define his own parameter list — assigning MIDI messages to particular controls.
Using such products and advanced sequencers stretches the ability of both computer and MIDI interface. Faster machines such as the Mac Quadra and multi-channel interfaces such as the Opcode Studio 5 have become essential.
New computers also accommodate NuBus cards which allow on-board sampling and digital audio recording, either using the Mac’s own hard disk or a separate SCSI drive. This has brought about greater integration of the studio — sound can be recorded, edited and then ‘bolted into’ a MIDI sequence.
  Recent progress will certainly lead to the ‘desktop studio’ —
with implications as provocative as desktop publishing.
MIDI may be pushed to the peripherals of such advances, but
its robust design assures it a challenging future!
