For my second prototype, I decided to steer away from the visual aspect of things and focus on the implementation process. I worked in the program, Max, which I will potentially be using for the final project. I figured out how to set up my MIDI keyboard through Max and I made it so that the user can select between a number of different instruments to play with (just like any normal keyboard would). The difference is that I made it easy to understand, separating the different instruments families into categories and only selecting the instruments that create pitches, rather than sound (i.e. trumpet vs. woodblock).
Even from working with the sounds myself, I realized that a lot of these instruments sound terrible. The reason for this is because I was using general MIDI data to generate the sounds of each instrument. Based on the feedback I received, the main criticism was the quality of instrumentation and making each instrument sound realistic. Dr. Nakra suggested that I either find a source of instrument MIDI files online, or commit to a long and tedious process in Logic. Doing it through Logic would involve the following: play a single note with the instrument track I want, bounce that individual note as a wav file, import that file into Max, rinse and repeat with every note of every instrument. I’m still trying to decide on a realistic approach to the quality of instruments, and I’m glad to hear any suggestions. For the mean time, general MIDI instruments will be my audio source for the final prototype.
In addition to setting up the Max patch, I’ve also been researching on the function “Jitter” in Max, which will allow me to display graphics in real time. I hope that in the future, I will master this function and be able to implement my visuals into the Max patch.