“This episode is dedicated to Dan Nash, a friend of mine in England who passed away on January 22.
“Dan was working on a number of different music projects including New Musical Order and Rockin’ Daily.
“We were fans of each others’ work online and were working together on Musicians for Music 2.0. Dan had a congenital heart defect and has left us at the young age of 28. I hope he is listening to this episode up there and enjoying it …”
Dan lived in England, but the words above come from Charlie McEnerney, a friend of his from Boston, on his site, Well Rounded Music.
Dan was also a friend of mine and the last time I spoke with him, in October last year, “we should run it under a CC license, but also try to encourage people to pay whatever they think for the results”, he said. “We could then split the income equally with one share each to the musicians and one share to the site to be used for development, expenses, etc”.
I thought that would work.
He was talking about our plan to start Global Midi Jam with collaboration and sharing as the two operative words.
The idea was to launch a non-profit site where musicians could get together and jam online. They’d each register for a session which only they would be able to access. But visitors would be able to hear the music/songs as they developed and contribute their thoughts.
“Music live and in action, P2P style.”
We thought MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) because Midi files are tiny.
“MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another, and to exchange system data”, says the Wikipedia. “MIDI does not transmit an audio signal or media — it transmits ‘event messages’ such as the pitch and intensity of musical notes to play, control signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato and panning, cues, and clock signals to set the tempo. As an electronic protocol, it is notable for its widespread adoption throughout the music industry.”
Dan died from heart disease before we could really get GMJ rolling, but his girlfriend, Rae, wants to see the site continue in his memory.
I heard about Dan’s death from Charlie and we’ve decided to do what we can to make Global Midi Jam come alive.
But we’ll need help.
At this point our primary need is for someone to program the site – create the code to make the jam session compartments musicians will use for their projects.
We’ll also need ideas on the best way to make it work.
That’s it for now, but stay tuned and if you have any thoughts, please contact:
charlie @ wellroundedradio dot net
p2pnet @ shaw dot ca
Stay tuned …
Jon Newton