http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20425376

thanks for reminding me how old i am... can't believe i used the dos version of cakewalk. ugh.

and before that is was CV a Gates...

Thank goodness for MIDI eh!

i still have nightmares about running 30 foot tape loops and running patch cables in a moog modular.  although using an adapted sawsall and power drill to supply cv to the moog was definitely fun!

This was my first keyboard. I never figured out how to hook up the MIDI. 

:)

Happy birthday MIDI.  I remember going into a studio to record a couple of demo's in around 1983 and coming across a keyboad with a strange DIN lead in it, that allowed me to control another remote keyboard, combine the two together and change the patch on the remote.  Seems so obvious now but what an eye opener it was at the time.  A little earlier Blue Peter had run a competion for people to send in pictures of what they thought the future of keyboards would look like.  Mine had 3 keyboard layers, a LOT of buttons, but also embedded a little computer screen!  I didn't win.

On the other hand, around the same time (maybe the year before) I saw Marillion live and watched in awe as mark Kelly stood between two banks of 3 keyboards actually 'playing' all the stuff live.  This was just as Marillion were breaking into big-time - and our school  had managed to sign them for a private gig to celebrate our 60th.  You don't see that scene so much anymore.

Really like the fact that something so trend setting was invented by a man called 'Dave Smith'.  And then he gave it away for free, gor bless 'im.

Roland had a lot to do with it too. 

The first versions of Cakewalk software that I ever saw were MIDI only DOS versions. 

I was impressed. 


I like how things have developed to make it easier. 

I remember spending $1200 for a Krumar Orchestrator, with something like 6 sounds.  What a piece of dukey.

I immediately that that MIDI was just about the most brilliant cool thing ever.  The thought of having my left hand and be right hand both playing completely different layered sounds was completely cool.  It made SUCH an impact on both studio and home recording - with Twelve Tones Cakewalk for DOS.  Thanks Bakers for evolving so well along the way.

I was around 20 when all of the MIDI stuff happened, and at the time was also using a real upright piano that I had chopped down and installed multiple Barcus Barry pickups to the sound board to give me multiple ways to get sounds from the piano.  We used 2 skateboards once to literally roll it down the streets for several blocks one winter from my house to the drummer's house, with a snow plow bearing down on us.  We brought a chair on wheels, and the drummer and guitar player pushed the piano, and I hooked my legs around whatever I could so that as the whole thing rolled down the street I could play while we rolled along.  We got our photo of us doing that in the local paper.  Our band had quite a following back then in Chicago, as we were doing all original prog rock music, similar to Genesis and ELP.  Pretty fun times, never will forget the whole time - expect for parts of 1979 and 1980.  Then of course I mentally blocked out the trauma of the big-hair 80's - and both disco AND punk.

Bob Bone