SUMMARY
Intense Weekend at
Project Bar-B-Q
Were the Following Events,
Topics & Talks in Summary.
"MIDI
Sounds Awful"
This is the year 2005. This talk is about going back to the
future, looking back and examining how we got there. One hint about what
happened to MIDI. It delivered on its promise but there are more compelling
alternatives for music on computers. (Jim Reekes, Apple)
"3-D
Shoot-out"
Point/counterpoint between major 3D players (Creative: Jean-Marc
Jot, Aureal: Scott Foster, Microsoft: Aaron Higgins, Sensaura: Peter Clare,
Cirrus: Marc Jordan. Moderator: Conrad Maxwell)
"Whispering
Pines"
"Professor" Brian Moriarty spent a weekend this summer at a
Zen retreat in the mountains. He sat in meditation for long hours, ate
cold rice and listened to the coyotes bay in the pre-dawn light. The winter
stars twinkled with fierce splendor. A large bottle of Advil was emptied.
And a cat emerged from the forest with a live bird in its mouth. No one
under 18 permitted. (Brian Moriarty, MPath)
"OK,
What are the Real Problems?"
In a welcome, timely, and characteristic moment of macro-observation,
Tom White gathered the kids around his feet and retold the ancient fairy
tale of "The Origin of MIDI." Like all good legends, this story told of
the hero's voyage. It told of how two men long ago decided to make the
world a better place by giving up their notions of competition, and by
cooperating on open standards that would be freely available to Kings
and paupers alike. He did not propose a moral, but invited us to draw
our own conclusions in light of current efforts to define future technology
standards. (Tom White, MMA)
"Beatnik
and New Horizons
on the Net."
"If my assertion that Web music will be huge in a couple of
years is correct, then this group needs to start thinking about it right
away: There will be lots of work generated in several different areas.
But it points to a need to reevaluate how our economics work, whether
work for-hire really has any future, and whether we should be looking
to build something more reusable and with more lasting value. Back Catalog
and publishing residuals are the backbone of the music industry, yet they
mean very little in the games music world." Thomas tackles this topic,
using Beatnik web pages to illustrate some points.
3-D
SIDE-BY-SIDE LISTENING EVENT: Creative: Jean-Marc Jot,
Sensaura: Peter Clare,
Aureal: Mike Taylor
DEMOS:
Staccato Systems Demo: Bob Starr
Diamondware Demo: Keith Weiner
Hotz Interactive Demo: James Grunke
Harmonix Music Systems Demo: Mark Miller
Rockwell/Nemesys Gigasampler Demo: Dave Govett
TALKS
"Amplification
Breakthrough: Class T"
High quality inexpensive amplification from Tripath eliminates one more
thing we used to blame our troubles on. (Glen Burchers, Tripath)
"Multiple
Format Audio Systems in the Age of Surround"
As we enter the "Age of Surround" for personal computers, the
challenge for the computer's audio system will be to act as a Universal
Translator to take audio data in whatever format the application wants
to provide it, and figure out what to do to make it play best in whatever
listening environment the user happens to be in. (Michael Land, Lucas
Arts)
"DirectMusic
Authoring"
This talk demystified some of the techniques and methodologies
a composer might employ to create interactive music using the DirectMusic
authoring tool. (David Yackley, Microsoft)
"AMR"
AMR is a new bus standard and a new slot in next generation
motherboards for next year. It is based on the AC '97 2.1 specification
from Intel and will also be incorporated in two mobile card standards,
MDC and MiniPCI. The protocol supports up to 5.1 audio channels and two
modem lines at the same time. Instead of PCI card the new Audio and Modem
cards will be called AMR, MDC or MiniPCI. The controllers are being integrated
into the core logic and begin to eliminate one source of revenue for audio
and modem companies.(Conrad Maxwell: Rockwell)
