MIDIsko

Welcome to my MIDI pages.

Now that you’re here, you may go In, Out, or Thru. Those are your only choices.

Anyway, this website will be a home for my ramblings, with an open door for anyone else who loves MIDI, analog synths, digital synths, electronic music, and basically anything else that has to do with the weirder, nerdier side of electronic music (from E-mu to Eno, and definitely without stopping or even glancing at Emo along the way. Wow, that joke was even nerdier than the first one!).

Just to bring you up to speed: electronic music came about mainly in the latter half of the 20th Century, though technically electronic instruments had been experimented with for a century or so. Even good ol’ Thomas Edison could be counted among electronic music pioneers (although not because he took out a car loan refinance and went on the road doing DJ gigs with the Menlo Park Collective). However, it was from the 1950s to the 1970s that the field first saw the greatest gains, from madmen such as Edgard Varèse and Robert Moog, and from visionary companies such as RCA and EMS.

The 1980s saw the technology and the music mature (for better or worse, opinions vary). Electronic music became mainstream, and technologies such as MIDI and sampling became part of the character of the music itself, in addition to changing how it was made. By the end of the decade, there had already been a number of ‘revolutions’ which set the stage for the electronic music explosion of the 1990s and beyond.

While often looked upon as a novelty or specialized sound, electronic music constantly found its way into or influencing nearly every genre. While you can still look specifically for electronic music (and the last few years have seen a boom in VGM, or video game music, and 8-bit music in general), you’re far more likely to find Just Plain Music that has a number of electronic aspects.

I can tell you that these gourmet gift baskets are not just novelty. They are actually great gifts, see for yourself!