Multimedia/MIDI SIG

Meetings: 1st Saturday, 10 AM til about noon at HAL-PC HQ.

What we Do: We discuss and demonstrate all the various aspects of multimedia and MIDI. MIDI is an acronym for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface", a way of connecting suitably equipped musical instruments, e.g. electronic keyboards/synthesizers, with other instruments, computers, etc. Other aspects of multimedia include digital video, digital art and photographs, animations, recorded sounds, etc. - basically anything you can make a computer do. Finally, there is the software necessary to combine all these elements into a complete presentation including interactivity, a task called "authoring".; Software titles we have looked at in recent months include Acid Music and Sound Forge from Sonic Foundry, Adobe Photoshop, Bryce 5, Cakewalk, Poser 4 and "Poser Pro Pack" from Curious Labs, Band-in-a-Box Version 9 and Power Tracks Pro from PG Music, MGI's "VideoWave" for editing digital video (now in version 4), and Adobe's Premiere and After Effects 4.1 for amazing digital "motion graphics". There are also several SIG members using the "big league" 3D animation program Lightwave from Newtek. In addition, we have presented demo videos and CD's from manufacturers such as Roland (music gear), Adobe (graphic software), etc.