MIDI Sequencing

One of the biggest predictors of the future of music came in one of the least-regarded musical instruments: the humble player piano.

Yep, that bastard instrument known mainly from roadhouse fight scenes in cheesy Western films (though in reality it wasn’t perfected until the mid 1920s, by which time cowboys and saloons were rather dated). It’s not that the player piano inspired a generation of musical revolutionaries (it didn’t, though it did inspire a rather thought-provoking Vonnegut book), it’s the basic design concept: removable, interchangeable musical instructions carried out by a ‘real’ instrument.

They were often of the “step time” variety, which created bigger limitations. “Step entry” required the composer to put each note in, one by one, until the full song (or more likely, a repeating pattern) was stored in the sequencer. The more fun method (as seen on the legendary Roland TB-303, among others) allowed the composer to begin playback and then enter or edit any of the notes (and other available options) while the pattern looped.

While you could change the tempo in all but the most limited of sequencers, you were stuck with the strict metronomic rhythm (and in too many cases, not much control over note length or even the relative volumes of individual notes). This was fine for Kraftwerk and anyone else going for the robotic sound, but not so great for anything else…and the first generation of MIDI sequencers did nothing to correct this huge drawback…