How to test a synth with newly-added Scala File-loading capability?

Here is an update on my effort to help Ian, the developer of the new
Scala file-loading tool for the Nord Modular G2 synth, test the new tool.

Bach pieces seem to be a standard here for auditioning tunings. I'm
guessing this is because Bach is recognizable to many, his pieces were
written before the standardization of 12-TET and thus not biased
towards 12-TET itself. So I decided to use MIDI files of Bach pieces
for my testing. I got the sending end of my test setup going, with
the MIDI file player and MIDI channel remapper (most of these MIDI
files transmit across multiple channels, even the ones that are
supposed to be harpsichord pieces) transmitting to my Nord G2X.

Where I need some help in testing is in the area of tunings that
specify an average of more than 12 notes/octave or are otherwise
significantly removed from Meantone. For example, the Bach piece that
sounds good with the Meantone-tuned test patch on my G2X sounds
drastically different with the Fokker-tuned test patch - it sounds
like a completely different piece, thus defeating the purpose of
auditioning a new tuning with that piece. It's because of the
remapping of the MIDI Note Number values - under the Fokker tuning, up
to 5 octaves of a standard piano/organ style keyboard map to a single
octave.

Any ideas for testing these more extreme tunings? Do folks just work
with 12-note subsets? Other ideas?

Thanks,
Paolo

paolovalladolid wrote:
> Here is an update on my effort to help Ian, the developer of the new
> Scala file-loading tool for the Nord Modular G2 synth, test the new tool.
> > Bach pieces seem to be a standard here for auditioning tunings. I'm
> guessing this is because Bach is recognizable to many, his pieces were
> written before the standardization of 12-TET and thus not biased
> towards 12-TET itself. So I decided to use MIDI files of Bach pieces
> for my testing. I got the sending end of my test setup going, with
> the MIDI file player and MIDI channel remapper (most of these MIDI
> files transmit across multiple channels, even the ones that are
> supposed to be harpsichord pieces) transmitting to my Nord G2X.
> > Where I need some help in testing is in the area of tunings that
> specify an average of more than 12 notes/octave or are otherwise
> significantly removed from Meantone. For example, the Bach piece that
> sounds good with the Meantone-tuned test patch on my G2X sounds
> drastically different with the Fokker-tuned test patch - it sounds
> like a completely different piece, thus defeating the purpose of
> auditioning a new tuning with that piece. It's because of the
> remapping of the MIDI Note Number values - under the Fokker tuning, up
> to 5 octaves of a standard piano/organ style keyboard map to a single
> octave.
> > Any ideas for testing these more extreme tunings? Do folks just work
> with 12-note subsets? Other ideas?

There's a program for Windows systems called Midiconv, which can take a 12-note per octave MIDI file and remap the notes to any number of pitches per octave. You can specify which notes these get mapped to according to a text file. But Graham Breed's page seems to be down, or else I don't have a recent URL for it.

http://microtonal.co.uk/

But if you have a tuning with 60 notes per octave, and your original source file spans more than two octaves, you're out of luck. You'd need to take different ranges of pitches and map them to different channels, which could be done by a program, but Midiconv isn't set up to do that.

Herman Miller wrote:

> There's a program for Windows systems called Midiconv, which can take a > 12-note per octave MIDI file and remap the notes to any number of > pitches per octave. You can specify which notes these get mapped to > according to a text file. But Graham Breed's page seems to be down, or > else I don't have a recent URL for it.
> > http://microtonal.co.uk/

I lost my own copy! If anybody has one, maybe they could send it along.

> But if you have a tuning with 60 notes per octave, and your original > source file spans more than two octaves, you're out of luck. You'd need > to take different ranges of pitches and map them to different channels, > which could be done by a program, but Midiconv isn't set up to do that.

I don't know if my Kyma files would be any use, but I don't have them with me anyway. It'd be useful if we could collect some standard test files for >12 tunings.

Graham

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Graham Breed <gbreed@...> wrote:

> > But if you have a tuning with 60 notes per octave, and your original
> > source file spans more than two octaves, you're out of luck. You'd
need
> > to take different ranges of pitches and map them to different
channels,
> > which could be done by a program, but Midiconv isn't set up to do
that.
>
> I don't know if my Kyma files would be any use, but I don't
> have them with me anyway. It'd be useful if we could
> collect some standard test files for >12 tunings.

Good idea! I am working in the dark as far as choosing MIDI music
files to test >12 tunings. I understand many of these tunings were
created for specific compositional requirements, but it would help to
have a pool of test compositions in MIDI file form to test the Scala
loading functionality of various synths for these tunings. Otherwise,
with my relatively limited microtuning experience, I alone cannot
determine by ear the correctness of the tuning implementation in the
synth.

Paolo

This testing process has uncovered several breaking

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
wrote:

> There's a program for Windows systems called Midiconv, which can take
a
> 12-note per octave MIDI file and remap the notes to any number of
> pitches per octave.

That's easily done using Scala. Take the midi file, use
scale to convert it to a seq file using numbers for
notation, then add a line "0 equal n", where n is however
many pitches to the octave you want, and convert it
back to a midi file. Not that the result is likely to
sound all that great...