Re: ultimate instrument

X. J. Scott wrote:

> Because making sure the pitch bends work properly
> allows for the adaptive tuning and does not represent
> any additional hardware cost. I'm not suggesting that
> it be done to the exclusion of proper short and long
> fixed tuning table support, but this level of control
> is really the only way possible on a standard MIDI
> interface to get adaptive tuning without substantial
> delay -- even the simple 12 note tuning table has delay
> that a great many performers would find totally
> unacceptable. This is avoided using pitch bends which
> add a 1 ms delay to the notes but do so consistently,
> not destroying the groove like erratically interspersed
> tables do.

We should be asking for real time single note tuning changes as per the
MIDI Tuning Standard. I'm not sure why they aren't already on the list.
Pitch bends were designed for a different function. Getting them to work
the way you say would be as hard as providing the support we *really*
want.

> >> This is what we really need. With this, people can write
> >> tuning processing modules that implement whatever realstime
> >> retuning system desired, and upload them to their
> >> instruments, and perform in public without having to use a
> >> unreliable crash prone PC.
>
> > This will never happen with hardware synths.
>
> We'll see!

This is an illusion. Of course you don't want to perform in public with
an unreliable, crash prone PC. So use a reliable PC instead. Get a good
box from a reputable supplier, don't add any hardware beyond what you need
to handle the MIDI and don't add any software beyond the well written and
well tested package you need to do the processing. If you're really
paranoid, put two of them in a rack with a MIDI merge to get redundancy.
If you think a hardware synthesizer that allows arbitrary code to execute
on it will be magically crash proof you're living in a fantasy world.

Graham

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "X. J. Scott" <xjscott@e...> wrote:
> Hi John,
>
>--------------snips----------------

John wrote:
> > I should include some reasoning behind the 12 note per
octave
> > tunings. This helps support adaptive tuning software such as
> > Justonic's Pitch Palette. You cannot do adaptive tunings
> > using full keyboard tunings over MIDI, because you cannot
> > transfer that amount of MIDI data without interrupting the
> > note timings.

What is the difference between 12 and say an upper limit of 17
notes for adaptive tuning on the halberstadt keyboard?

Surely 17 notes is no harder than 12? I can just reach an octave
[or repeat interval] with one hand span on the standard keyboard.

scales with slightly more notes than 12 offer melodic subtley,
adpative tuning offers the promise of harmonic purity. Surely
these two can live side by side?

Jeff:
> I do understand that, but why limit it to 12 note
> octave tunings? Why not allow the user instead to send
> a message defining N notes, starting at any note number
> desired. The system then extrapolates the scale by
> transposing.

I agree this would be perfect.

>Would take about the same bandwidth as the
> 12 octave thing but would be substantially more
> versatile. This should be the way the standard short
> tuning messages work instead of being constrained to an
> octave and 12 tones.

Ditto what Jeff said.

Justin
-------snips-----------

I should have mentioned this earlier. If anyone is earnestly interested
in building microtonal synthesizers with advanced tuning features then
there are a couple of options:

1) Hardware synthesizer. Chameleon by Soundart:
http://www.soundart-hot.com/index.htm. Chameleon is an open development
platform in a 1U rack form factor, containing a 100 MHz Motorola
DSP56303 24 bit DSP for audio processing and a Motorola Coldfire
MCF5206e 32 bit microcontroller for MIDI and user interface support. You
can roll your own synthesizer in this box.

2) Software synthesizer. Reaktor by Native Instruments:
http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?home_us. Using the event
tables in Reaktor and advanced macro programming I believe it is
possible to support almost any tuning requirement. We would have to
build a "microtuning engine" that could be plugged in to synthesizer
instruments. We would also want to build a "standard library" of
microtunable instruments as the MIDI to microtonal pitch control
interface will be embedded inside instruments. It can require extensive
modifications to add this support to existing instruments.

John Loffink
jloffink@...

> We should be asking for real time single note tuning changes as per
the
> MIDI Tuning Standard. I'm not sure why they aren't already on the
list.
> Pitch bends were designed for a different function. Getting them to
work
> the way you say would be as hard as providing the support we *really*
> want.

You are right. I will look at the best way of adding MTS single note
tuning changes.

John Loffink
jloffink@...

Max/MSP <http://www.cycling74.com/products/maxmsp.html>. Build what you want.

Can also be used to build stand alone synths that can be freely distributed.

Cheers,
Joel