Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    Nope, wrong. (kinda)
    
    If you detune 1 synth -50c, the detuned low C falls outside of the
    octave for a 24 note octave. 23 unique notes.
    
    If you had 2 synths and a sequencer you *could* "play" both.
    And just think what you could do with a $10K midi setup.
    
    I can tune my DX any place over 5 octaves.
    
    Edd

    Hey, good idea Edd!
    If you use something like a KX-76 or KX-88 along with a sequencer,
    you could have a split side for each tuning. The KX's have a MIDI
    in, so it could play either or both scales, too.
    
    Peter
    

    I gracefully submit to Tom's superior ability to count. I was wrong.
    Perhaps we should start a new note?
    
    Regardless of the number of notes in a quarte-tone scale, it should
    be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that alternative
    scales/tunings *are* possible with synths, sequencers and MIDI.
    Indeed, it would appear that this is the only way available to
    Joe Everyman using readily available modules.
    
    By using various tone generators and midi chanells it is possible
    to make scales of n intervals; with user-definable pitch variation
    between adjacent notes.
    
    What? You feel limited by 16-voice polyphony? I'll show you how
    to chain sequencers in parallel and get n voices. It takes more
    than 1 synth....
    
    It gets so tiring listening to artists complain their works can't
    be realized because the technology won't allow it to be. Here's
    the answer to one of the common gripes. It was easy. (Hey, look
    who figured it out! (Among others, I'm sure...))
    
    Edd
    
     

    Do a SET NOTE/TITLE or something like that to change it.
    
    "intuitively obvious...casual observer".  Are you familiar with
    Braun's `Differential Equations and Their Applications'?  College
    Diffy Q textbook where I first came across this phrase.  Quite a
    maddening thing to read when you haven't a clue as to what's going
    on!  (In the book, not here...)
    
    Richard                       

    Thanks!
    
    Edd

    
	You spelled observer wrong.
    
    	casual_observationist_with_no_belief_in_locality

    
    The glorious FB01 allows each of its 8
    voices to be separately detuned +/- 12700 cents.
    (100 cent resolution.)
    The overall tuning reference (A440 scope) is also tunable.
    
    All you need is some software between the kbd and the
    Fb01 to translate note ons to other note ons.
    
	BUT!
    Dont you REALLY want a special kbd with munches of iddy-biddy
    black keys in-between the bigfat white ones so you can see
    what the 'actual' microtonal 'note' is?
    
    Who is capable of playing such a mutant?
    

    ooooppppps. I forgot my sense, er cents. Thats not gonna
    do it. youre gonna have to use the 'voice global' detune
    function (not the same as global 440 tuning). I think the 
    resolution is 1/64 semitone.
    

    Buy one. Get midi-maniacal,Tom.
    
    Enter the high tech age and plunk down your Yen, er, bucks.

    I actually put my A where my mouth is last night and set up my 
    keyboards in the prescribed fashion.
    
    It worked just as I described.
    
    But to answer the "who could play such a mutant?" question, I submit
    the following in retort... "Why would they want to?"
    
    The resulting "scale" was just this side of offensive to my
    (obviously un/underdeveloped) western sensabilities.
    
    Edd

What's the point of a scale with more notes in it? Let's try a scale with
fewer notes in it, but have them be the right notes.

What I want for the short term is a just intonation synth. I think it would
be interesting to go back and play Bach's Well Tempered Clavier without the
tempering. With a just intonation synth and a MIDI keyboard controller that
can transpose the note values it sends you could finally really solve the
problem, instead of compromising. You could actually play a keyboard piece
that modulates all over and play in tune in every key, rather than being
equally out of tune in every key. A tritone would really sound dissonant,
and a fifth would really sound consonant.

But why stop there? If I can have a synth with just tuning why can't I have
a synth whose tempering system I can control and experiment with? Then I'd
go back to Helmhotz's research on the perception of intonation and (after
some experimenting) maybe come up with a tempering system that sounds better.

I'd like to see what this would have done to the historical development of
the use of harmony in Western music if it had been available in the 17th
century, too.

Don.

    What is "just intonation".
    
    Once I know what it is, I will solve the problem.   ;^)
    
    Edd

    
    I am considering an E! enhancement for my DX7, and am curious about
    what JS Bach's tuning(s) was (were).  I have read that it was not
    equal... does anybody have any ideas?
    
    Also, does anybody have any idea about the frequency ranges possible
    with pressure on a clavichord key?
    
    David
    

     "Well-tempered" is definitely not "equal-tempered". Bach's
    was most likely the Werckmeister tempering, which distributes
    the Pythagorean comma equally to fifths on C,G,D, and B.
    
     No, I can't continue to live a lie. I had to look it up. The
    New Harvard Dictionary of Music has an article on "Temperament"
    from which the above was plagiarized. The article also has a
    bibliography which includes references to John Barnes, "Bach's
    Keyboard Temperament", in the journal Early Music for 1979 (pp.
    236-249); William Blood, "'Well-tempering' the clavier",same
    journal and year, pp. 491-495; Dale Carr, "A Practical Introduction
    to Unequal Temperament", Diapason 65 (Feb. 1979). Werckmeister's
    book "Musikalische Temperatur" was reprinted in facsimile in
    Utrecht by the Diapason Press in 1983.
    
     I used to know a guy in Braintree (Mass.) who did business as the
    Organ Literature Foundation and would have carried that book, but
    Directory Assistance never heard of him; if I were desperate to
    own a copy I would check the classifieds in recent issues of 'The
    Diapason", the music reference section of the Boston Public Library,
    and Blackwell's (booksellers) in Oxford (England, but you knew that).
    
     With respect to the clavichord question, I probably got a book
    somewhere that tells; I'll dig around if/when I think of it. Depends
    on the key throw and the length of the string, right? My off-the-top
    answer is that it's quite a lot, at least a semitone. If I were
    desperate to know THAT, what I would do is take a trip in to the
    Museum of Fine Arts, wander down to the basement to the Galpin
    collection of old instruments, flash my most winning conspiratorial
    scholarly smile at the person at the desk, and ask if she/he might
    possibly be able to answer a question about clavichords for me???
    
    -John

    Wendy 'the Confused' Carlos waxes strident on the subject of
    alternative tunings, and indeed has a way to get her two main synths
    (name forgotten) frequency tables tunable thru software.
    
    For a real listen, put on the Soundpage from the November KEYBOARD
    magazine.
    
    Don't forget your barf bag.
    
    karl

    I bet you think diatonic in your sleep.
    
    I thought it was at least interesting
    enough for one listen.
    
    rr
    

    Her synths are the MTS Synergy, which is a scaled down, cheaper
    model of the Crumer GDS, one of the first real synth/computer
    configurations (I programmed one in Assembler and Fortran on the
    Z-80 computer, CP/M operating system).
    
    	- Rick
    

    re .19 'I bet you think diatonic in your sleep'..
    
    untrue. I have a quite good collection of Mideastern and North African
    Sufi music using some quite bizarre scales. And I enjoy it very
    much.
    
    But Wendy's stuff isn't just foreign, it's out of Uranus.

    I listened to the soundpage several times, as I have been a theoretical
    fan of alternative tunings for some time now (I wrote a paper for
    the course "Analysis and Synthesis of Musical Sounds" that I took
    at MIT on the subject of a justly intoned keyboard instrument;
    this was in 1968), but the soundpage cured me.  I'll confess that
    it's possible I've been brainwashed by almost 40 years of equal
    temperment, but I found the just 7ths to be unacceptable to my
    (perhaps debauched, certainly arrested) ears.
    
    However, in my defense, I listen to a lot of Indian classical music,
    where the scales (ragas) are wildly varied, and the instruments
    are unfretted (sarod) or have movable frets (sitar).  And yes, I
    know the veena has frets, but they're scalloped so deeply you can
    get just about any pitch you want.
    
    And why does Wendy spend so much time duplicating the sonorities
    of traditional instruments?
    
    len.
    

    Re: .21
    
    You *DARE* to insult Wendy Carlos?!!!.......The Ultimate Synthesist?!!
    
    
    You think "diatonic" is a gin and tonic for the obese.  :-)
    
    
    John M.

RE: .22
    
        
 >  And why does Wendy spend so much time duplicating the sonorities
    of traditional instruments?  <

Because she *can*!


John M.
    
   
    

    Re;-1
    
    	No, she can't.  I've done better on my Chromas, and I ain't shit.
    She has captured the imagination of the media (she was one of the
    'firsts').  But, there are plenty of people in the background who are 
    doing better.  She's a media star.  Good for her, but it ain't art.
    
    	She can't compose worth sh*t.
    
    						- Karl

    re -1, W Carlos' compositions.... amen !
    
    My everlasting thanks to KEYBOARD magazine for letting me HEAR what
    she's talking about, both recently with 'Beauty and the Beast' and
    about 18 months ago with 'Digital Moonscapes'.
    
    Carlos' compostitions and her version of alternative tunings are
    a LOT more interesting to read/talk about than to hear.
    
    'Beauty in the Beast', indeed !

    BTW, 'compostitions' was NOT misspelled.
    
    karl moeller