Midim
The MIDIM system was originally a software package suitable for controlling two digital VOSIM generators and was developed by Werner Kaegi at the former Institute for Sonology at the University of Utrecht. Since the publication of the VOSIM model in 1978 by Werner Kaegi and Stan Tempelaars, several generations of generators have been built by chief engineer Jo Scherpenisse. The first generation, working at the aforementioned institute, was controlled by a DEC PDP-15 Computer and was used intensively by twenty different composers between 1978 and 1986. The system was already introduced at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam in 1980. Later a new generation of generators functioned, controlled by means of an Atari ST, for which an implementation of the MIDIM system was made by the MIDIM group for Sonology.
→ MIDIM/VOSIM: Audio - Soundcloud
Vosim
Werner Kaegi published for the first time in 1967 in his famous book: "Was ist
elektronische Musik?", two Ideas.
First: musical sounds are always rooted in the sounds of our
languages. And secondly: most of the complicated information in sound signals can be cut
away, without loss of its typical sound qualities. This discovery was certainly not obvious and
brought him some years later to the Vosim model and the MIDIM software.
The Vosim model (Voice Simulation) describes a specific signal function, the Vosim signal, it's spectral
characteristics and the parameters to control it. The Vosim function consists in its simplest
form of a sinesquare pulse, followed by silence. The silence represents the part of the signal
which is in fact redundant. Of course, it doesn't hold for all kinds of signals, but it does
certainly for vowels. And as music is basically built on this speech like sounds, as Kaegi stated,
many musical sounds can be created by much simpler signal functions than we would think,
watching their shapes.
Very soon Kaegi was aware of the scope of his curious discovery. He received several grants to
investigate his ideas more profoundly (Swiss and Dutch national research funds). It finally led
to fifteen years of investigations at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, Holland (1971-1986)
Midim 1978 - 2020
At the end of the eighties there were working systems at Werner Kaegi in Aubais and Utrecht, the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and at the studio of Jos Janssen in Arnhem. Later, Jos Janssen got the idea to ask ir. Luuk Trip (former Sonology student) to write a translation program from so-called Vosim files to Wave files. These wave or wav files can be processed in any sound program on both PC and Apple. At the moment (2021) version 2.0 works in Studio JHW Janssen. The Atari emulator Steem is used (version 4.0). Anyone who knows an Atari will immediately recognize the screen.
In 2020 Heinerich Kaegi and Ludger Hurts started with the VOSIM66-project. A new VOSIM sound synthesis software, based on the original ideas was written.They analyzed and recalculated old VOSIM sounds from the past and created hundreds of new sounds with a lot of enthusiasm.
Atari emulator
Sonology Computer Studio 1976
Atari emulator Midim start page
