Musical Skills!! 41play back simultaneously. Most synthesizers enable the use of 16 MIDI
tracks per device, indicating that 16 individual events (channels or
sounds) per synthesizer and its associated MIDI-based hardware, such as
reverb units, can be triggered on an individual basis. MIDI provides digi-
tal data, not sounds; each synthesizer produces the sounds.
Computers have changed the world of music in much the same way as
satellites, radio, television, telephones, films, and other forms of communi-
cation have. The ability to use MIDI (and samples) is one of the most
important technical skills a composer/arranger in any musical idiom can
possess. It has revolutionized the way music is written and performed.
Composing music for commercials and understanding and having the
ability to implement the technical applications are as essential to the com-
pletion of the process as writing the music.
Sequencers
Sequencers enable composers to arrange a composition one track at a time
and to play back MIDI and audio data, simultaneously triggering various
synthesizers and other audio data. They provide a recording platform,
nonlinear editing, and performance playback: events such as sustain,
velocity, aftertouch (the pressure applied to a note after the initial attack
affects the output level), pitch bends, transposition, and other parameters
are a sampling of the events that programmers can manipulate. Most
sequencers provide detailed editing systems, enabling programmers to
accomplish almost any imaginable sound manipulation.
Most sequencers are computer programs; stand-alone hardware
sequencers are less popular. Computer-based sequencers can synchronize
with digitized video clips, such as Quicktime Movie and video players
(not often used), making it possible to play music in synchronization with
video. The graphics of most computer sequencers emulate tape recorders,
with virtual playback, record, fast-forward, and rewind buttons, and
recording consoles, with faders, automation, sends, effects, and so on.
Many sequencers display the musical notation that has been played into
the system; the notation can be edited and printed. (Programs such as
Finale and Sibelius, dedicated notation programs, are more advanced than
the notation systems found within sequencer programs. Many profes-
sional copyists use this software.)
In any genre of film writing, composers have to time the scenes and
choose the tempo(s) before composing. In most instances, since the music
has to correspond to the action (both emotional and physical), it is very
difficult to conduct live musicians without the aid of a click track (metro-
nome); it is also problematic to play back electronic music in sync with the
action without synchronization. After a tempo(s) has been chosen,
sequencers instantly provide essential technical information that enables
the programs to play in sync. Digitized video clips are loaded into com-