YouTube integration....

• Mar 8, 2018 - 21:43

What if you could save your score / midi file to YouTube? Would you use this feature or add-on application?

The MIDI file is encoded into video then uploaded.

To give it to someone else, you would give them the link to the YouTube video. They could then playback that video and a player with the right kind of decoder in it can decode the video back into midi for playback or editing.

A couple of advantages are the people know how to share videos, but not midi files.
Another is that the video can also have normal video that is played in sync to the midi playback. This is similar to Disklavier.TV.


Comments

In reply to by MikeyB

I don't know of any technology for a video to control MIDI devices all by itself. But probably there exist video players that do. So in principle you could download the YouTube video to your computer and load it into such a program. Not sure why you'd need to, as the video itself would already have the sound, that's kind of the point. Otherwise it could just as well be a video of puppies :-)

In reply to by MikeyB

So basically you are wanting to be able to share scores with people in a way that allows them to play the scores on their MIDI-enabled pianos. It's a neat idea, but I don't see how YouTube would be a part of such a scenario. Best bet would be to upload the score itself to musescore.com, then have others download the scores onto their own computers running MuseScore, and play via MIDI once 2.2 comes out. Or they could download the MIDI files and play with their favorite MIDI player. I suppose someone could develop an app & service that performed this function specifically for the benefit of people not otherwise familiar with MIDI, but then, those people probably don't have MIDI-enabled pianos...

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Someday all pianos will be digital. Yes it's possible to kind of cobble together something today if you're technical. The experience I'm talking about would be using a very simple player. Why mention midi at all. This is a YouTube video that plays your instrument (piano or otherwise) along with the video.

If that performer was say Elton John, then would you be more interested? I dunno, people love to share music. I would like to see yet another way. When both the video of someone playing is married with the midi so that it's a "live" performance, it changes the experience.

In reply to by MikeyB

"Right, but the right player does." - exactly, which is I am talking about MIDI, because the apps that play MIDI files are the "right player". It's way too late to re-invent the standard video formats to also include MIDI synchronization info and then simultaneously get all video players to implement that. Plain and simple, this is not a job for video. It's a job for MIDI if you want to use existing formats and apps, or you can invent a new format and develop your own apps to support that format.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

How about if the MIDI file, sheet music PDF file, info about the musician, contact info, artwork, were all in the video file? Then the video could live anywhere and still retain all that information without any "comments" section. That way there are no links to follow that can break. Oh, and it works with all existing video formats... this isn't a 'new' format. It's a new technology using old formats.

I'm betting that the people with playback capability will want a very simple, one or two button, player. "Play a file and it plays my piano in Sync".

At least it's a player capable of playing a MIDI device. You can't playback in musescoe

It's the Authoring people that I expect will want to work with the midi files, open in musescore to see and change.

In reply to by MikeyB

You're welcome to put any or all of that info in the file as video, along with clips of puppies or whatever other video content you enjoy. But there exists no technology to do anything with video info other than watch it along with the puppies. You won't be able to have music playing on your piano and more than you'll have the puppy materialize in your living room.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

"But there exists no technology to do anything with video info other than watch it along with the puppies. You won't be able to have music playing on your piano and more than you'll have the puppy materialize in your living room."

Have both the technology and the player..... it is what you saw in the YouTube videos. I'm unable to fully disclose the details yet, but expect to be able to show it shortly. Will be supplying a Windows based player for these kinds of files in the coming weeks.

One of the reasons for my post is that I'm seeking both music makers and consumers of music to try out this new technology.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Working on a player I can distribute. Patent pending on the technology, but have to get additional forms filed prior to showing the entire solution publicly. You'll have to trust that the videos I've posted all use my software and technology :-)

Now only can the MIDI be "attached" to the video so that it plays back in sync, the Score itself (and as many other files as desired) can also be attached. When musescore uploads the video to YouTube of the animated score, it could include the midi file and musescore file. Forever more the files and videos will be married and thus won't ever get lost.

The enthusiasm is appreciated! It really is a special kind of experience to watch another person play your instrument.

In reply to by MikeyB

Getting closer on Windows demo ... promise....

I've been syncing a number of scores from a variety of sources. Some videos sync up with the midi.... others, the video tends to drift ahead.

Here's a great example and a great song:
https://youtu.be/bECfK-tlsrE

I'm wondering if Quantization could be causing the problems. The overall time between notes has been monkeyed with.

Any opinions on drift are greatly welcomed!

In reply to by MikeyB

"Someday all pianos will be digital."

A bold and contentious statement. Would you care to back it up with facts? I play acoustic piano, and only acoustic, despite having been a pianist since before midi existed and having kept up-to-date with every advance in the field.

The range of what can be accomplished on an acoustic piano cannot yet be reproduced on a digital keyboard. Partial una corda, quarter and half pedalling, the difference between striking a note and drawing it down gently from deep within the keybed, "depress silently" effects, and so on simply can't be reproduced on current digital pianos. Digital pianos don't currently respond to a pianist's "touch" in any meaningful way, such that the distinguishing features of, say, Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang are erased.

Until digital pianos can provide all the same expressive nuances as acoustics, I consider it unlikely that the acoustic will be supplanted.

In reply to by Peter Schaffter

We are in complete agreement about the impossibility of reproducing an acoustic piano.

I meant .... acoustic pianos will [likely] be electronic [in some fashion.]

That day may be 100 years off, but I do think we'll get there. I hope so as a player piano has less chance of being idle, especially after content is easy to get to it.

At the moment, actually playing back midi files on these pianos is difficult to achieve. It involves usb sticks, etc. Or finding a program to do it.

I want to make it as easy as playing a YouTube video. That's what you're seeing in my demo.

My apologies for not being more detailed in my somewhat bold statement.

In reply to by MikeyB

Finally have a Windows demo of this technology. Also finally fixed the bug causing sync to drift. They all stay in perfect sync now.

If anyone reading this thread has a player piano and is interested in trying out playback of Videos in sync with your piano, please contact me.

I would post more videos, but they're pretty much all showing the same thing.... videos playing in sync with MIDI.

The player will work with any attached MIDI device, including built-in MIDI on the PC.

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