Filed away for future snark

Noteflight’s luddite manifesto, in which they creatively forget about MIDI composition.

By comparison, audio is a frozen, static record of something that was played once. You can remix it, resample it and apply effects to it, but its musical DNA is a done deal. An audio recording contains the same ideas that could be written down in notation, but the recording is already telling you, “this is how it sounds.” In contrast, a score asks a question: “how could this sound?”

Synthopia has a nice rebuttal.

Also of note, from the Noteflight FAQ:

Can I enter music into Noteflight using a MIDI keyboard, or play Noteflight scores back using my own MIDI instruments?

The Adobe Flash Player Plugin, which is used to run Noteflight’s Score Editor, does not have access to your system’s MIDI devices. We are working on various technical approaches that would allow MIDI devices to be used with Noteflight.

Instead of writing manifesto’s defending an antiquated trade, maybe they should be looking a little more seriously into MIDI keyboard support.

EMG

The Electronic Music Group is an interesting experiment that I feel is truly on the cutting edge of electronic music in the schools. It goes beyond project-based individual learning, and allows those projects to come to life with real time performance methods. Plus it’s fun.

Here’s a video of the kids rocking out at OMEA/TI:ME national 2011 in the hallway outside the technology area.

Mort got ’em warmed up for us:

We had a pretty sweet program to hand out too:

Anyway, thanks to OMEA, TI:ME and eTech Ohio for having us perform at these conventions. We hope to do an even crazier show next year.