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Global MidiJam. Sharing music.

p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “Music got me onto the Net in the first place,” I wrote in 2004.

I’d started p2pnet.net a couple of years earlier as a music (not file) sharing site, with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) as the medium, and I was still trying to make it happen.

The idea is simple, I wrote. Post mp3s (or other formats) of music you’ve made under a Creative Commons license so other people can hear it.

MIDI files are tiny so you can email them to someone else who can add a lead guitar line, say, or maybe improvise on the keyboard section. That person can then email the new version to someone else, and so on.

Or if you’ve made an mp3, someone else can add to it, record the results and pass it on. Then mix it. And jam to it. Do whatever you want with it. Except use it for commercial purposes without prior agreement.

This was in 2002 and a lot of stuff that’s routine now wasn’t happening back then. Also, somehow or another p2pnet went way off topic and became a digital news and advocacy site.

But music is still very much where it’s at for me and I’ve always wanted to get back into it and then last year, I was lucky enough to start talking with Dan Nash of Musowire over in the UK, and we decided we’d launch GlobalMidiJam.com.

Bush Baby

The plan is the same except Dan, who’s also a programmer, is going to code the site so we’ll have a series of ‘jams’ in which to up to five musicians at a time will be able to launch their own project and collaborate with each other.

They’ll be the only ones who’ll be able create tracks for the final composition in each jam. But visitors will be able to follow their progress and make suggestions for improvements. Or otherwise.

That’s the idea, anyway. Music live and in action, P2P style.

In 2004, I went on »»»

I play guitar. Kind of. I can’t read music and I don’t know the names of any of the chords. In other words, I play entirely by ear. Then in 1993 I discovered the Roland SCC-1 GS Sound Canvas Card. I lived in Toronto, Canada, at the time, and Paul Stillwell turned me onto Dan McKee’s Winjammer software synthesizer. Created in Oakville, just outside of Toronto, sadly, Winjammer is no longer available. But I still use it.

In those days, I pumped everything in by hand one note at a time, via PC keypad and mouse. Then I added sounds, bends, assigned instruments, and so on, recording through Chris Craig’s Goldwave Digital Audio Editor and Multisequence Multitrack Mixer, two more excellent Canadian apps.

Just before Christmas in 2008, I treated myself to Arturia which comes with Cubase AI4, and I’ve just started using it (although as I said earlier, good ole Winjammer is still around.) The trouble is, although I can use the virtual instruments no worries, for some reason, I can’t hear the MIDI, although I can see it’s being picked up. But that’s OK for the moment because I’m using the VST instruments, with MIDI files as the triggers.

I still can’t play keyboard properly, but I can pick stuff out and out add it in.

Bush Baby below is a really simple first effort and if anyone wants to start a jam, let me know and I’ll tell you where to down load the individual .wav or .mp3 tracks so you can fool around with them. Same with the finished piece, such as it is.

The only provision is: I’d like to hear what you do with it. Feel free to do the same with the other pieces but remember – they’re all at least five years old and I lost the individual tracks long ago.

And one last qualification. I’m a very amateur musician, so please make allowances.

Cheers! And thanks. And all the best …

Jon Newton

Bush Baby – Industrial? Dance? I dunno

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