A while ago I said something about a MIDI guide for XG and other MIDI stuff. By which I meant the entire list of MIDI products that exists before MIDI 2.0's announcement.

This is a Big Goal, and I was recently working with XG thinking about how cool it would be to start it up again.

I am here to announce that I have decided to continue working on the book no one asked for: INTENSE TECH IN ALL THINGS GENERAL MIDItm
I plan to cover the following subjects in the First Edition. The chapter numbers will be listed in the order of the FINAL book, and as such skip the sections that I don't have the knowledge to work on yet:
1. Tome of Tips
a bunch of neat applications for the GM standard sounds
3. Escape To LA Synthesis
a guide to LA synthesis (specifically geared towards custom patches)
5. Etches of XG
How to make XG MIDIs and how to use Yamaha's SOL2

Later editions will cover the following subjects:

2. It's Not A Phase, Mod
(Except technically it is) 4-op and 6-op FM/PM synthesis guide
4. Guide to GS
Touches on MSGS WaveTable Synth, GS synthesizers and (maybe) capturing the sound of 90s MIDI gear

Now for the things that I'm considering, but are not currently planned:
6. Patchmaking with the JV series
7. Hardware Samplers?

Now, I have a rule with this. I don't want this book to be a replacement for a geniune education in music production (because it would certainly fail at doing so); this book will be incredibly esoteric (I can hear you getting excited, I did say esoteric) and strictly MIDI.

please bug me about this on discord if you are genuinely interested in it and I haven't given updates on it, I will not get mad (if you're reasonable)!! I just suck at motivating myself sometimes

I'd be so down to do graphics for this and make it like a cool coffee table book. :P

Imagine pages FULL of 90s-2k synth styled designs!!

a big compiled MIDI guide will be a very useful tool... this stuff is so spread out around the internet as-is. perhaps as evidenced by our lyceum being one of the first results for some MIDI-related google queries lol. looking forward to this

didnt yamaha manufacture a bunch of 2-op midi synthesizers as well?

Nitro: This book focuses on desktop modules and rack synths primarily; stuff that can only truly be controlled via cable. All of the 2-op stuff is keyboards.

PlugnPlay: I will DM you shortly asking to work with you.

3 months went by with little progress on the book. I want to change that. I've decided to sit down and work on it for at least 30 minutes daily.

To start, I have decided to work on what is (currently) the appendix: a thorough documentation of the parameters and preset patches of as many MIDI device sound engines as possible. I may put this section at the beginning so that my terminology for this stuff is defined at the beginning.

I've also decided to standardize some terms for the various "layers" of a synth engine in the process.

I also have a naming scheme for each synth engine (beyond the device model) to simplify identification of synthesizer hardware capabilities: I call it "Engine-Mode-Timbralityl Identification", or EMT-ID for short.

On top of all of this, it lists the differences between models of the same synth line.

Expect a lot of fun footnotes, too! I have a lot of info that I'm doing proper, thorough research on.