Re:Researchers’ AI aligns sheet music with MIDI audio
by jcranmer on Monday November 16, 2020 @10:43PM
(#25120065)
In a piano, the relevant acoustic properties controllable by the player is key down (with differing amounts of force) and key up, with the pedals effectively acting as a way to delay key up (although one pedal causes the hammers to hit two instead of three strings, which largely manifests as quieting the piano). The simple note on/off + note velocity of MIDI models this well, and it's basically the use case MIDI was designed for.
By contrast, the technique involved in playing the violin family is very varied:
* Which string are you playing the note on? You get different sympathetic vibrations depending on which one you choose.
* Are you moving the bow up or down? Direction matters!
* How are you changing bow movement between notes? Keeping the same direction, or changing? Resting your bow on the string the entire time, or bouncing the bow?
* Where you are playing the bow? Down by the bridge, or up by the fingerboard?
* Are you even using the bow to the play notes? You can pluck it instead!
* Fingering too, you can make many small motions with your finger to give it a vibrating quality.
* On a related note, the pitch you play is a continuous quality: you can slide from one note to the other and hit all the notes in between. Unlike a piano (and MIDI), where notes are discrete pitches.
* You can also adjust tuning of the strings (though not on the fly), or damper them with a mute (which can be done during a long rest in a piece).
There's probably a few more expressive techniques I've forgotten, and I've definitely forgotten all of the fancy Italian names for these techniques.
You can look at the violin sections of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71fZhMXlGT4) to see how different bowing techniques can produce rather stark effects.
By contrast, the technique involved in playing the violin family is very varied:
* Which string are you playing the note on? You get different sympathetic vibrations depending on which one you choose.
* Are you moving the bow up or down? Direction matters!
* How are you changing bow movement between notes? Keeping the same direction, or changing? Resting your bow on the string the entire time, or bouncing the bow?
* Where you are playing the bow? Down by the bridge, or up by the fingerboard?
* Are you even using the bow to the play notes? You can pluck it instead!
* Fingering too, you can make many small motions with your finger to give it a vibrating quality.
* On a related note, the pitch you play is a continuous quality: you can slide from one note to the other and hit all the notes in between. Unlike a piano (and MIDI), where notes are discrete pitches.
* You can also adjust tuning of the strings (though not on the fly), or damper them with a mute (which can be done during a long rest in a piece).
There's probably a few more expressive techniques I've forgotten, and I've definitely forgotten all of the fancy Italian names for these techniques.
You can look at the violin sections of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71fZhMXlGT4) to see how different bowing techniques can produce rather stark effects.