MIDI Synthesizer
Every canoe needs a synthesizer... not only does this give us a VAST archive of densely-packed music files (you think MP3 is easy on disk space at a megabyte/minute... Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is only 144K), but it's also my drummer and accompanist for jammin' the blues on my flute. And as just another device on the crossbar networks, the synth is readily available for amusing sound effects when the security system is violated, impromptu fanfares, and so on.

I found this unit on Ebay and love it... extensive research through the amazingly active online MIDI community proved it to be an excellent performer. It's also very low power, suited to our photovoltaic environment, and can apparently, at least on a PC, live quite happily on a serial port without a MIDI interface (though I haven't tried it with the Macs... at the moment the Big Drawing shows a separate interface which we will eliminate if possible). The basic specs are:

  • 8 MB of internal ROM memory
  • 64 voice polyphony
  • 430 multisounds, including 90 new presets
  • 215 drum sounds, including 51 new drum samples
  • 128 General MIDI sounds
  • Computer interface (to host PC)
  • Two completely independent dynamic digital multi-effects system with 47 effects each

As with most commercial products that we're embedding, this will be unpackaged and integrated into the Microship system in circuit-board form... keeping the LCD for diagnostics.

There's a rich online Korg synthesizer resource called Korgy Park, with links to lots of other places, and the Net is filled with General MIDI files and other resources.

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