What a waste

[nicco]

of time and resources making this crap

replace musicians? what is the world coming to.

[zheer]

  A computer will never be able to compose great music.

[m1469]

I would venture to say that it won't take over the world.  While the invention is a bit of a human feat, and perhaps there is genius behind it, paying a pretty price to go and watch a violin play itself just doesn't have the same appeal as watching somebody, who sold their soul to their instrument, do the same thing but with the possibility of errors.  

It would be like going to a track event to watch robots run a race.  It's a bit of a novel idea, but not something that would drive the soul to greater heights, in my opinion, and not something I would want to pay (or even subject myself to for free) to witness over and over again. 

What is there for me to relate to ?  What am I supposed to experience ?  The real person inspires more awe when they go out there time and again and deliver an outstanding show.


m1469

[nicco]

  A computer will never be able to compose great music.

compose? this is performing. I just hope non-musicians wont start getting ideas from this.

btw, i agree with you totally m1469 

[pianistimo]

was it in the first violin chair, too?  if i was a violinist, that piece would go in the junk pile.  competing with robots?  you have to show them who's boss.

[quantum]

There seems to be a ways to go with further improving the design.  It seems there is no way to do double, tripple, or quadrupple stopping, natural and artifical harmonics, use a mute on a string, and also play on the opposite side of the bridge.   Can it even do pizz?

There was some thought into sympathetic vibration, but only with two other strings so it is still missing one. 

[prometheus]

Haha, he made a computer that can play music but that looks like a violin...


The violin isn't played. Only the wood is used for some resonance.


A real computer creates better music because it can use high quality violin samples.

[invictious]

Sounds like midi as usual, me doesn't like.

[pianolist]

Don't ever believe the television!

Just to set the record straight, there were roll-operated violins almost 100 years ago, and at least one of them, the Hupfeld Phonoliszt-Violina, was capable of sounding rather better than this new one. It could double and treble stop, used variable vibrato, and produced its sound with a genuine horsehair bow passing at different pressures and speeds over the strings.

This computer instrument reminds me of the Mills Violano Virtuoso, which used small celluloid acetate disks to rotate on the strings and produce the sound. Like this one, it had a roughness to the tone, which, given that it had to play in amusement arcades and bars, was a good thing in its day, but it wouldn't go well with live orchestras.

Music is a very human activity. Look at the faces of the orchestral players in the video, and you can see that they are bored. There is no human feeling to inspire them, or to excite the audience. But playing with roll-operated instruments can also be fun, so don't be put off by one bad example. Percy Grainger will be playing the Grieg Concerto several times in Norway next year. He will give the tuning "A" beforehand, and no doubt a lifesize cardboard cut-out will come on and take the applause afterwards - gimmicks which may seem rather trite to the purists are actually quite important to an audience which needs to feel part of a festive concert atmosphere. And most importantly, his performance is gutsy and very human.

The majority of modern MIDI files are nowhere near as subtle as classical piano rolls were, but that's a topic for another day.