Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Yet another microtunable soft instrument

Got this from LinPlug this morning (and I note that, in a blurb with only a few sentences, they choose to include mentioning microtuning prominently):

"Organ 3 : a new Synthesizer ... or Organ ?

Organ 3 is a major update to daOrgan, now offering 3 individual manuals with layer/split modes and two two multi-effect units. Let Organ 3 rock with Microtonal support, Glide, Pitch Bend and many other new features. Adding a lot of features is technically no problem, so our main design task was to find and design features that makes sense for an organ. To preserve the typical sound and spirit of an organ
while moving to uncharted sound territory. We carefully selected a setup of organ-ish features to keep you experimenting for years to come."

Full info�s at
http://www.linplug.com/Instruments/Organ_3/organ_3.htm

Cheers,
Jon (who notes that it is getting hard to keep track of all the microtonal resources now available to us all!)

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

>Got this from LinPlug this morning (and I note that, in a blurb with
>only a few sentences, they choose to include mentioning microtuning
>prominently):
>
>"Organ 3 : a new Synthesizer ... or Organ ?
>
>Organ 3 is a major update to daOrgan, now offering 3 individual
>manuals with layer/split modes and two two multi-effect units. Let
>Organ 3 rock with Microtonal support, Glide, Pitch Bend and many other
>new features. Adding a lot of features is technically no problem, so
>our main design task was to find and design features that makes sense
>for an organ. To preserve the typical sound and spirit of an organ
>while moving to uncharted sound territory. We carefully selected a
>setup of organ-ish features to keep you experimenting for years to
>come."
>
>Full info�s at
>http://www.linplug.com/Instruments/Organ_3/organ_3.htm

Great news! The first microtonal clonewheel I'm aware of. LinPlug
does great stuff.

>Cheers,
>Jon (who notes that it is getting hard to keep track of all the
>microtonal resources now available to us all!)

Yup, there's not a problem with synths any more, though one
side-effect of the VST revolution is that you need a degree in VST
arcanery to do anything. But the controllers are still lacking.

-Carl

🔗Jon Szanto <jszanto@...>

Carl,

{you wrote...}
>The first microtonal clonewheel I'm aware of.

Me too.

>LinPlug does great stuff.

Agreed.

>Yup, there's not a problem with synths any more, though one side-effect of the VST revolution is that you need a degree in VST arcanery to do anything.

Nope, some of them are exceedingly straightforward. Rhino, for instance, has an abundance of good sounds and the tuning is as easy as "pick a file". Methinks you aren't trying these things out enough. But you are being a bit vague, so I don't know if it is programming the sounds, getting them to interact with a host, or what, that you are referring to (if not the above).

>But the controllers are still lacking.

You mean hardware? Maybe so, but it depends on what you want to do. Don't forget, you're the guy that doesn't mind if they aren't touch/velocity sensitive, citing organs as prototypes, thereby bringing the topic full circle! :) But while they might be "lacking", they certainly aren't non-existant, and it is easier to make microtonal music, in a wide area of ways, than ever before. I'll choose to focus on that reality...

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

>>Yup, there's not a problem with synths any more, though one
>side-effect of the VST revolution is that you need a degree in VST
>arcanery to do anything.
>
>Nope, some of them are exceedingly straightforward. Rhino, for
>instance, has an abundance of good sounds and the tuning is as easy as
>"pick a file". Methinks you aren't trying these things out enough. But
>you are being a bit vague, so I don't know if it is programming the
>sounds, getting them to interact with a host, or what, that you are
>referring to (if not the above).

The latter. It's a very kludgy architecture in my opinion.
Thankfully, there's REAPER.

>>But the controllers are still lacking.
>
>You mean hardware? Maybe so, but it depends on what you want to do.
>Don't forget, you're the guy that doesn't mind if they aren't
>touch/velocity sensitive, citing organs as prototypes, thereby
>bringing the topic full circle! :) But while they might be "lacking",
>they certainly aren't non-existant,

There are no microtonal keyboard controllers currently in mass
production. Keyboard controllers are usually what are used with
synths. Efforts to control synths with guitars and such have
usually ended in disaster. Breath controllers have occasionally
been good.

-Carl

🔗Aaron Krister Johnson <aaron@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@...> wrote:

> There are no microtonal keyboard controllers currently in mass
> production. Keyboard controllers are usually what are used with
> synths. Efforts to control synths with guitars and such have
> usually ended in disaster. Breath controllers have occasionally
> been good.

I just found myself reading an old Brian McLaren post yesterday (on
the same site that Dan Stearns referred people to)

He was mocking people that talk about the need for such things (like
STARR LABS keyboards, or the other such solutions. I wonder. I
certainly think he's right that an awful lot of MM gets done without
them; he claims that 'no full-length CDs have ever been done' by any
people who HAVE them--that I cannot verify, but if there are, I don't
know of them. I take it he means also 45 minutes of music in any
format whatsoever.

One of the interesting things about the MM movement besides the music
itself (which is wildly varying in quality) is *how* people find
solutions to the problem of the lack of controllers/instruments.

It's a tremendous amount of work, and certainly less excitng for 'live
music please' based people, but nothing is stopping people from
creating electronic non-realtime works of high quality using slow,
text-based appraoches--CSound, etc.

-A.

🔗threesixesinarow <CACCOLA@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson"
<aaron@...> wrote:
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@> wrote:
>
> > There are no microtonal keyboard controllers currently in mass
> > production. Keyboard controllers are usually what are used with
> > synths. Efforts to control synths with guitars and such have
> > usually ended in disaster. Breath controllers have occasionally
> > been good.
>
> I just found myself reading an old Brian McLaren post yesterday (on
> the same site that Dan Stearns referred people to)
>
> He was mocking people that talk about the need for such things (like
> STARR LABS keyboards, or the other such solutions. I wonder. I
> certainly think he's right that an awful lot of MM gets done without
> them; he claims that 'no full-length CDs have ever been done' by any
> people who HAVE them--that I cannot verify, but if there are, I
don't
> know of them. I take it he means also 45 minutes of music in any
> format whatsoever.
>
> One of the interesting things about the MM movement besides the
music
> itself (which is wildly varying in quality) is *how* people find
> solutions to the problem of the lack of controllers/instruments.
>
> It's a tremendous amount of work, and certainly less excitng for
'live
> music please' based people, but nothing is stopping people from
> creating electronic non-realtime works of high quality using slow,
> text-based appraoches--CSound, etc.
>
> -A.
>

Seems like a lot of the old ones are museum pieces instead of musical
instruments. I wonder if the parishioners at the Indiana Place chapel
in Boston were aware of their microtonal organ, apparently dismantled
by 1895 (or where White's neat Harmon number 4 is).

Clark

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

>> There are no microtonal keyboard controllers currently in mass
>> production. Keyboard controllers are usually what are used with
>> synths. Efforts to control synths with guitars and such have
>> usually ended in disaster. Breath controllers have occasionally
>> been good.
>
>I just found myself reading an old Brian McLaren post yesterday (on
>the same site that Dan Stearns referred people to)
>
>He was mocking people that talk about the need for such things (like
>STARR LABS keyboards, or the other such solutions.

Yeah, he told me 'regular keyboards are fine' when I first met
him in '98.

>'no full-length CDs have ever been done' by any
>people who HAVE them

Heh. Norman has one, and he's written more quality music than most
of us here. Scott Hackleman, George Secor, and Michael Zarkey have
them, with no albums released that I know of. Chris Mohr has one,
and he's working on a 53-tone oratorio with it. I own his

http://www.fromtherealmoftheshadow.com

which is also on Naxos American Classics, and which is one of the
more significant microtonal works I can think of.

>One of the interesting things about the MM movement besides the music
>itself (which is wildly varying in quality) is *how* people find
>solutions to the problem of the lack of controllers/instruments.
>
>It's a tremendous amount of work, and certainly less excitng for 'live
>music please' based people, but nothing is stopping people from
>creating electronic non-realtime works of high quality using slow,
>text-based appraoches--CSound, etc.

If I could find people around here who wanted to jam, I'd use a
retuned Halberstadt. If it's going to be a solo thing, my time is
better spent working toward a generalized keyboard.

-Carl

🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>

Steven Taylor uses this keyboard all the time.
One of the reasons i do not do much electronic music is the lack of such a keyboard. I prefer to work with my acoustic instruments that do where i don't have to spend time thinking about things i would rather not that just make doing music more difficult. Anyone who has used a Bosanquet keyboard based layout finds how greatly the layout aids in ones thinking as opposed to the other way around where the same interval will always look the same. You brain grabs on it it and makes the free pure spontaneous adventure through the notes better than even what you find on a 12 tone keyboard.

threesixesinarow wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron Krister Johnson" > <aaron@...> wrote:
> >> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@> wrote:
>>
>> >>> There are no microtonal keyboard controllers currently in mass
>>> production. Keyboard controllers are usually what are used with
>>> synths. Efforts to control synths with guitars and such have
>>> usually ended in disaster. Breath controllers have occasionally
>>> been good.
>>> >> I just found myself reading an old Brian McLaren post yesterday (on
>> the same site that Dan Stearns referred people to)
>>
>> He was mocking people that talk about the need for such things (like
>> STARR LABS keyboards, or the other such solutions. I wonder. I
>> certainly think he's right that an awful lot of MM gets done without
>> them; he claims that 'no full-length CDs have ever been done' by any
>> people who HAVE them--that I cannot verify, but if there are, I >> > don't
> >> know of them. I take it he means also 45 minutes of music in any
>> format whatsoever.
>>
>> One of the interesting things about the MM movement besides the >> > music
> >> itself (which is wildly varying in quality) is *how* people find
>> solutions to the problem of the lack of controllers/instruments.
>>
>> It's a tremendous amount of work, and certainly less excitng for >> > 'live
> >> music please' based people, but nothing is stopping people from
>> creating electronic non-realtime works of high quality using slow,
>> text-based appraoches--CSound, etc.
>>
>> -A.
>>
>> >
> Seems like a lot of the old ones are museum pieces instead of musical > instruments. I wonder if the parishioners at the Indiana Place chapel > in Boston were aware of their microtonal organ, apparently dismantled > by 1895 (or where White's neat Harmon number 4 is).
>
> Clark
>
>
>
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
> -- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/index.html>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main/index.asp> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@...>

he actually has had it for a number of years cause Marcus Hobbs has done a number of things on it too i believe.i understand the action has been improved since the one he got.

Carl Lumma wrote:
> At 09:54 AM 12/5/2006, you wrote:
> >> Steven Taylor uses this keyboard all the time.
>> >
> Last I talked to him he was planning to get one, I believe.
> Good to hear he did it!
>
> -Carl
>
>
>
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
> -- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/index.html>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main/index.asp> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles