Re: Support articulations, slurs and breaths in MIDI (issue 26470047)

[Dan Eble]

[Taking the message public again after a previous reply-to-sender.]

On Nov 16, 2013, at 12:57, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> LilyPond's MIDI output is not supposed to approximate the actions of a
> competent human player.  LilyPond's MIDI output is supposed to provide
> the melodic information for a MIDI expander or MIDI sequencer.
> 
>> I can’t tell if you’re against Devon's patch, or against the
>> enhancements I have suggested,
> 
> I repeat: your enhancements have no place in the MIDI output of
> LilyPond.  LilyPond is not an instrument simulator even if we are
> looking at MIDI output.  If it were, its output would have to be a sound
> file.  What you ask for belongs in the MIDI expander, not in the MIDI
> generator.
> 
>> . . .
> 
> MIDI is not supposed to be realistic.  MIDI is supposed to provide the
> necessary melodic information for a MIDI expander to convert it into
> sound.  This information is not encoded differently for different
> instruments.  There may be instrument-specific controllers (like the
> rather open-minded "Expression") which one can use to convey additional
> information.  But that's not part of the basic information transmitted
> in the normal channels using the normal controllers.

I think I understand what you are saying; but if I do, it sounds like you do 
not understand me.

I suggest that if a thousand pianists sat down in turn at a keyboard controller 
with a difficult piece of music, and we said, “NO EMOTION: Play like a 
machine!” and we recorded their performances to MIDI files; then separately we 
had Lilypond produce a MIDI file of the piece containing the “necessary melodic 
information”; the results would differ.

I suggest that there would be certain things that most of the human 
performances had in common, such as releasing certain notes a little earlier 
than the score called for in order to prepare for upcoming notes.  And I 
maintain that because all the files are MIDI files, it is reasonable to say 
that there is room for the Lilypond MIDI output to be more realistic.  It’s not 
reaching beyond MIDI to nudge the quality of Lilypond output in that direction; 
it doesn’t require sound-file output.

Regards,
— 
Dan