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GDC 2007: The future of next-gen audio is MIDI - WHAT THE... |
Listed in: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: Dolby, GDC
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No, this isn't GamePro's April Fool's Day special (for crying out loud, it's only MARCH!). They report on a GDC session where Dolby (which puts the Dolby in Dolby DTS) announced that their vision of the future of audio in games will be MIDI. Insert tinny MIDI Final Fantasy VII victory theme here - no, not that pre-recorded synth in X.
They weren't kidding, it seems. The Dolby reps said that today's processing power in computer processors means that they can make MIDI a little more "real." They claim that with next-gen, MIDI can attain a fidelity comparable to or even better than dedicated synthesizers. And it will be smaller and faster to load than the pre-recorded stuff (one reason why Nobuo Uematsu went MIDI with FFVII).
Final advantage: because it's MIDI, and not pre-recorded, it can be programmed to be interactive - to sync with and react to in-game events and game flow - and the improved MIDI should still be able to deliver "a sound similar to an orchestrated score." And maybe still control a Roomba vac, too.
This we have to hear. No really, this we have to hear.
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Comments
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I think if we purge our previous notions of associating Midi with those tinny sounds and instead, recall that midi is simply a set of instructions for the sound-output machine, we might just understand the step towards "interactive audio".
Sounds interesting.
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a midi file is pretty much the score or sheet music for the song.
the quality of the sound relys on what processes the file. the midi that most are aware of is the extremely cheesy synthy stuff that is being processed off most modern audio cards.
now if you plug a midi file into a modern digital workstation keyboard, what sounded like complete garbage on your computer, would sound extremely lifelike.
its a very smart thing for people to take advantage of this technology a lot more.
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Yes the FF7 victor song was in midi format that dosnt mean all midis are like that.
Midi has the power to do very very high quality auto giving each little sound/instrutment its own track that can be customized to perfection.
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MIDIs were popular back in the olden days. The idea of having music in the form of digital instructions to play a synthesized instrument resulted in really small file sizes, however playing music on different synthesizers resulted in not having the same exact instrumentals when played back.
It was then improved with Modulated Music or MOD music, which uses series of recored WAV samples of instruments played back by a digital version of a sheet music. This achieved a high quality MP3 like music and still has a much smaller file size compared to a full length pre-recorded music...It is still being used today.
If this next gen audio happens then Dolby MIDI will have to be the standard of playing back next-gen music. Any other synthesizers might sound different( unless if its done by software then its not a prob)
Last thing is that, there's might not be any need for a grand scale orchestra because it can be done in a studio....( I dont know if this is a bad thing or not)
I also support the use of midi as the next gen audio; I like the idea of interactive and keyed in in-game music.
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