Global Controller: Making the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, 1983-1999 Ryan Alexander Diduck Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal August 2014 (Revised March 2015) A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy degree © Ryan Alexander Diduck 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Countless thanks to the faculty, staff, and students of the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University – first and foremost to my supervisor Dr. Jonathan Sterne, and a special thanks to Dr. William Straw for his unflagging support and guidance throughout. Thanks to Dr. Darin Barney for his assistance in the evaluation of my comprehensive exam and thesis proposal defence, and to Graduate Program Director Matthew Hunter. I am eternally grateful to Maureen Coote and Susana Machado for their administrative support and tireless efforts in the Departmental office. I drew strength, insight, and patience from my 2014 sound culture students who infinitely inspired me with their tenacious curiosity and unbridled energy. Grandescunt Aucta Labore. My research was generously funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Media@McGill, and the substantial support of Drs. Sterne and Straw. I am tremendously indebted to the participation of the North American Music Merchants in Carlsbad, California, and particularly the benevolent and welcoming assistance of Tony Arambarri, Dan Del Fiorentino, and Katie Wheeler at NAMM’s Resource Center. Thanks go out also to Brian Vincik, Marco Alpert, and Dave Rossum for their personal participation. Of course, this dissertation would not have been possible without Dave Smith of Dave Smith Instruments, and Ikutaro Kakehashi of Roland Corporation. Massive outs to Roger Tellier-Craig, Tim Hecker, Patti Schmidt, Craig Campbell, Nick Maturo, aAron Munson, Clarice Eckford, Mitchell Akiyama, Francesco de Gallo, JLK, Vicki Simon, Mr. Beatnick, and Buds MacLachlan for their friendship and moral support. Big ups to Frances Morgan and Jennifer Lucy Allan at Wire magazine, John Doran, Luke Turner, and Rory Gibb at The Quietus, Kiran Sande of Fact and Blackest Ever Black, Trevor Pinch at Cornell, Paul Théberge at Carleton, Haidee Wasson at Concordia, Yoke-Sum Wong and Derek Sayer at Lancaster, all at Casa Del Popolo, and Emily Mackay, Emilie Friedlander, Maya Kalev, Chal Ravens, Sophie Coletta, Adam Harper, and Simon Reynolds for their brilliance. In the house, yeah: William Bevan, Andy Stott, Pete Swanson, Laurel Halo, Holly Herndon, Bill Kouligas, Lee Gamble, Dan Lopatin, Rashad Becker, Robert Hood, Steve Goodman, Paul Purgas, Dominick Fernow, Terre Thaemlitz, Mark Fell, Marc Dall, Helena Hauff, Camella Lobo, Juan Mendez, James Ruskin, Karl O’Connor, Peter Sutton, Darren J. Cunningham, Gary Grice, Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, Andre Romelle Young, Liam Howlett, Tom Rowlands, Ed Simons, Norman Cook, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Rupert Parkes, Geoff Barrow, Richard D. James, Rob Brown, Sean Booth, Clifford Joseph Price, Adrian Thaws, Dieter Meier, Boris Blank, Jan Hammer, Harold Faltermeyer, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Brian Eno, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Maggi Payne, Enya Brennan, Wendy Carlos, and the late Bob Moog, Dwayne Goettel, Ian Loveday, John Balance, and Peter Christopherson. Absolute existence, absolute motion, absolute direction, absolute Truth. NOW, HERE, US. Finally, bountiful thanks to my parents, Iris Popowich and Taras Diduck, for their unconditional love and support. This thesis is dedicated in loving memory to my grandparents Alexander and Margaret Popowich, and William and Eva Diduck. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstracts v MIDI: An Introduction 1 1. Literature Review 6 2. An Overlapping History in Four Parts 11 Chapter 1: Claviocentric Rings 20 1. Cultures of Claviocentrism 21 2. The Tuning of the World 23 3. The Piano Business 25 4. Musical Automata 28 5. The Metronome 31 6. Gather ‘Round the Piano(la) 33 7. Tricks of the Trade 35 8. Never Had One Lesson!: The Effortlessness of Technology 38 9. Vital Organs 40 10. Arranged for Piano 43 11. Ikutaro Kakehashi and Roland Corporation 45 12. MIDI-Capable: Music Education and Digital Technology 51 13. More Human Than Human 59 14. Conclusion 62 Chapter 2: Avant MIDI, Après MIDI 66 1. Prog and Jazz: The Roots of MIDI 69 2. Herbie Hancock and Bryan Bell 70 3. Oberheim Electronics 75 4. E-mu Systems 77 5. The Ballad of Don Lewis 82 6. Presets, Patches, and PCM 86 7. Rival Dealer 87 8. John Chowning and FM Synthesis 94 9. Deus Ex 7 97 10. The MIDI Patch Boys 99 11. Even Better Than the Real Thing 103 12. Conclusion 108 Chapter 3: MIDI By Association 112 1. Standards and Classifications 113 2. MIDI’s Networked Publics: Social Construction of Technology 117 3. MIDI Stars in The NAMM Show 118 4. Synthesizer Makers Unite! (Sort of) 122 5. First Followers 125 6. The MIDI Manufacturer’s Association 128 7. The International MIDI Association 130 8. Imagined Applications 133 9. MIDI Drift: Miscommunication and Messes, Accumulated 135 10. The MEC and IRCAM 137 11. MIDISoft ’84 139 12. MIDI, the Anti-Standard 142 13. JEMIA and the JMSC 144 14. Publications 146 15. Did Users Matter? 148 16. MIDI’s Industry Impact 151 17. Conclusion 153 Chapter 4: Better Living Thru MIDI 156 1. Survey Says: The Music Retailer MIDI Attitude Survey 157 2. Dismantling the MIDI Tower of Babel 161 3. Why Not MIDI? 163 4. Not in the Manual: Taking The Mystery Out Of MIDI 166 5. Jive Talk or Jargon? 170 6. Easy Does It: General MIDI 172 7. Evan Brooks and Digidesign 174 8. By the Numbers: Making Music With The Computer 178 9. MIDI-centrism 181 10. Taking Aim at the Market 185 11. The Next Generation 187 12. MIDI 2 Point Never 190 13. Conclusion 195 Conclusion: Whither MIDI? 198 Notes 204 Bibliography 214 ABSTRACT Global Controller examines the creation of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, since its public announcement in 1983. Through careful analyses of interviews and musical instrument business documents, it highlights the process by which MIDI came into existence, and its influential role as a technical standard in the digital musical instrument ecosystem. Ideas about the intersecting synthesizer and computer industries, and a review of the emergent body of standards and music technology literature are presented in the Introduction. Chapter 1 advances a case for “claviocentrism:” or, the centrality of piano Keyboard-based instruments in Western music-maKing traditions. It examines the thousand-year history of clavier devices, and considers the drive towards musical automata. Chapter 2 looKs at pre- MIDI interfaces, and early moves towards connecting digital instruments. Through interviews with musicians and engineers, the path towards MIDI’s establishment is traced through various competing musical genre and technological innovations. Chapter 3 considers the roles of multifarious professional associations in the creation of MIDI. The North American Music Merchants, the MIDI Manufacturers Association, and the International MIDI Association are discussed, while questioning the user’s role in shaping the MIDI specification. Chapter 4 considers a number of industry studies commissioned in the 1990s to capitalize on the success of MIDI in the musical instrument marketplace. The chapter focuses on the growing relationship between MIDI and the computer business, and the development of new digital audio musical products. Findings from these analyses, and a discussion of post-MIDI music maKing practices are summarized in the Conclusion. v RÉSUMÉ Global Controller se penche sur la création du protocole “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”, ou MIDI, à partir du moment où il fut annoncé publiQuement en 1983. En analysant minutieusement une panoplie d’entrevues et de documents commerciaux d’instruments de musiQue, le texte met en lumière le processus par leQuel cette technologie est entrée en existence, ainsi que son rôle influent dans l’élaboration d’un standard technique au sein de l'écosystème des instruments de musiQue numériQues. L’introduction comporte une réflexion sur l’intersection des industries informatiQues et des producteurs d’instruments de musiQue électroniQue, ainsi qu’un examen du corpus émergent d’une littérature des standards et technologies de la musiQue. Le premier chapitre avance l’idée du “claviocentrisme”, c’est-à-dire, le rôle central des instruments basés sur le clavier-piano dans les traditions de création musicale de l’occident. Il s’attarde aussi sur l'histoire millénaire de dispositifs pour clavier, tout en considérant cette tendance vers l’automatisation des instruments de musiQue. Le deuxième chapitre se concentre sur les interfaces pré- MIDI et les premières tentatives de connexion des instruments numériQues. En présentant une série d’entrevues avec des musiciens et ingénieurs de son, le trajet menant à l’élaboration du système MIDI est illustrée par une gamme de différents genres musicaux et innovations technologiQues. Le troisième chapitre explore le rôle considérable d’une multitude d’associations professionnelles dans la création du MIDI. La North American Music Merchants, la MIDI Manufacturers Association, ainsi que l’International MIDI Association y sont discutées, tout en s'interrogeant sur le rôle de l'utilisateur dans l'élaboration de la norme MIDI. vi Le Quatrième chapitre analyse une quantité d'études industrielles commandés dans les années 1990 afin de capitaliser sur le succès du protocole MIDI au sein du marché des instruments musicaux. Le chapitre se concentre sur la relation croissante entre le MIDI et l'industrie informatiQue, et le développement de nouveaux produits musicaux audio numériQues. Les résultats de ces analyses sont résumés dans la conclusion, en plus d’une discussion sur les méthodes de production de musiQue “post-MIDI”. vii MIDI: an Introduction “MIDI. Abbreviation for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a communications protocol that allows a central electronic device, usually a keyboard or a computer, to interact with other MIDI-compatible devices, enabling one person to command several instruments at once – and to tweak, twiddle, and layer every last note and beat of a composition to one’s heart’s content.