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Comment by bjourne | Hacker News Reader

Since the score is available, couldn't a modern synthesizer produce a pretty good version of the composition?

It would be fairly dead, even on a real piano. If you recorded a real (good) pianist playing the same piece using a piano with a sensor bar the result could be played back and would actually be quite nice to listen to. But to go straight from score -> midi -> audio will not give an interpretation that will be very interesting.

If you want I can record a piece that you pick on the midi player piano that I just completed so that you can see firsthand what the effect would be. Let me know.

The Open Goldberg Variations were recorded on a piano that has a self-playing function. When nearby construction interrupted the recording process with outside noise, we had the piano repeat the takes so that we would still have them, and here's a video of that happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHipuHxYfjU

Wow, that's one very nice tool. Here is my variation on that theme, output only: https://jacquesmattheij.com/midi-fied-baby-grand-piano/ The input side is 'work in progress'. Not quite a Bosendorfer, but then again that would be totally wasted on me anyway.

Do you allow those midi files to be downloaded as well? That would be a priceless resource.

I have the .boe files somewhere. They're a proprietary version of MIDI that Boesendorfer developed. If you want them, I can find them and send them. robert@opengoldbergvariations.org

Oh super cool, yes, very much, I will mail you.

For a while I went through a phase of importing Bach midi files into ableton, exporting the audio to a track, then using ableton's "convert to midi" function to turn it back into midi, and then using a variety of soft-synths to replay the incorrect, but hauntingly familiar music. GBV, WTC and organ works were always fun. Favourite synths for replay would be Crystal, and Arturia's CS80V.

Add some long modulation envelopes and fiddle with the mod matrix for pseudo humanism ;-)

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