Re: [MMM] What do you use?

Booeyschewy asked...

> I am curious whateveryone else uses to write microtonal music.

So far for most of my work I use Coda's Finale for composition & notating
my scores, then play them back through Yamaha TX802s. I have a couple of
cartridges with micro-tunings on them. For patch management and tunings, I
use Sound Quest "Midi Quest" software. I now use Scala for loading new
tunings into the TX802.

> I am mainly interested in the electronic side of things.
> I know things like oasys, vaz, reaktor, max/msp etc have
> microtonal capabilities.

Recently I've tried out VAZ Modular and VAZ 2010 for playback. They are
both flexible microtonally. Scala can also make tuning files for the VAZ
line of soft synthesizers.

I've also tried Midicode synth which has great tuning support, but it
doesn't work yet on Windowx XP.

For all of these soft synths, Midiyoke is handy to pipe the MIDI output of
Finale into the Synth input.

Rick

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Rick McGowan <rick@u...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_3194.html#3194

> Booeyschewy asked...
>
> > I am curious whateveryone else uses to write microtonal music.
>
> So far for most of my work I use Coda's Finale for composition &
notating
> my scores, then play them back through Yamaha TX802s. I have a
couple of
> cartridges with micro-tunings on them. For patch management and
tunings, I
> use Sound Quest "Midi Quest" software. I now use Scala for loading
new
> tunings into the TX802.
>
> > I am mainly interested in the electronic side of things.
> > I know things like oasys, vaz, reaktor, max/msp etc have
> > microtonal capabilities.
>
> Recently I've tried out VAZ Modular and VAZ 2010 for playback. They
are
> both flexible microtonally. Scala can also make tuning files for
the VAZ
> line of soft synthesizers.
>
> I've also tried Midicode synth which has great tuning support, but
it
> doesn't work yet on Windowx XP.
>
> For all of these soft synths, Midiyoke is handy to pipe the MIDI
output of
> Finale into the Synth input.
>
> Rick

****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally tuned
synths, or do you do something different in the notation??

best,

J. Pehrson

J. Pehrson asked...

> ****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
> send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally tuned
> synths, or do you do something different in the notation??

I was afraid you'd ask... I gave up on notation long ago! I notate as if
it were 12-tET. I.e., the thing written as middle C is MIDI note 64,
whatever that's tuned to in the synthesizer. The only advantage to this
methodology is that I don't have to invent my own notation, and given a
score and a suitably tuned synthesizer, I can play what's written and get
the sound I want. In any serious work, I notate at the top of the score
what the tuning is supposed to be.

Rick

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Rick McGowan <rick@u...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_3194.html#3197

> J. Pehrson asked...
>
> > ****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
> > send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally
tuned
> > synths, or do you do something different in the notation??
>
> I was afraid you'd ask... I gave up on notation long ago! I notate
as if
> it were 12-tET. I.e., the thing written as middle C is MIDI note
64,
> whatever that's tuned to in the synthesizer. The only advantage to
this
> methodology is that I don't have to invent my own notation, and
given a
> score and a suitably tuned synthesizer, I can play what's written
and get
> the sound I want. In any serious work, I notate at the top of the
score
> what the tuning is supposed to be.
>
> Rick

***Hi Rick!

I see. Well, that makes sense. In fact, it's one reason I prefer to
use a *sequencer* rather than Sibelius for my *most severely*
microtonal work! That way, I get a "piano roll" notation showing the
piano *keyboard* which takes on a different function, since pitches
have been physically "assigned" to it with stickers...

Joe

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "jpehrson2" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Rick McGowan <rick@u...> wrote:
>
> /makemicromusic/topicId_3194.html#3197
>
>
> > J. Pehrson asked...
> >
> > > ****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
> > > send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally
> tuned
> > > synths, or do you do something different in the notation??
> >
> > I was afraid you'd ask... I gave up on notation long ago! I
notate
> as if
> > it were 12-tET. I.e., the thing written as middle C is MIDI note
> 64,
> > whatever that's tuned to in the synthesizer. The only advantage
to
> this
> > methodology is that I don't have to invent my own notation, and
> given a
> > score and a suitably tuned synthesizer, I can play what's written
> and get
> > the sound I want. In any serious work, I notate at the top of the
> score
> > what the tuning is supposed to be.
> >
> > Rick
>
>
> ***Hi Rick!
>
> I see. Well, that makes sense. In fact, it's one reason I prefer
to
> use a *sequencer* rather than Sibelius for my *most severely*
> microtonal work! That way, I get a "piano roll" notation showing
the
> piano *keyboard* which takes on a different function, since pitches
> have been physically "assigned" to it with stickers...
>
> Joe

I agree. Piano rolls are the way to go, especially i you are using
serial methods it makes it much easier to keep track of where you are
in the tone row.

todd

On Thursday, May 30, 2002, at 11:41 , MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Re: What do you use?
>
> J. Pehrson asked...
>
>> ****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
>> send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally tuned
>> synths, or do you do something different in the notation??
>
> I was afraid you'd ask... I gave up on notation long ago! I > notate as if
> it were 12-tET. I.e., the thing written as middle C is MIDI note 64,
> whatever that's tuned to in the synthesizer. The only advantage to this
> methodology is that I don't have to invent my own notation, and given a
> score and a suitably tuned synthesizer, I can play what's > written and get
> the sound I want. In any serious work, I notate at the top of the score
> what the tuning is supposed to be.
>
> Rick

That's odd, My information is that Finale has excellent support for microtonality, including notation & MIDI playback of same.
Brian McLaren posted this a long time ago. It's been a feature since Finale 97, I think.

Then again, maybe that's what Rick meant.

Possibly Finale still has better microtonal support than Sibelius ?

- Joel

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., Joel Rodrigues <joelrodrigues@m...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_3194.html#3207

>
> On Thursday, May 30, 2002, at 11:41 ,
> MakeMicroMusic@y... wrote:
>
> > Re: What do you use?
> >
> > J. Pehrson asked...
> >
> >> ****What do you do about *notation* though, Rick?? Do you
> >> send "regular" 12-tET notation from Finale to your microtonally
tuned
> >> synths, or do you do something different in the notation??
> >
> > I was afraid you'd ask... I gave up on notation long ago! I
> > notate as if
> > it were 12-tET. I.e., the thing written as middle C is MIDI note
64,
> > whatever that's tuned to in the synthesizer. The only advantage
to this
> > methodology is that I don't have to invent my own notation, and
given a
> > score and a suitably tuned synthesizer, I can play what's
> > written and get
> > the sound I want. In any serious work, I notate at the top of the
score
> > what the tuning is supposed to be.
> >
> > Rick
>
> That's odd, My information is that Finale has excellent support
> for microtonality, including notation & MIDI playback of same.
> Brian McLaren posted this a long time ago. It's been a feature
> since Finale 97, I think.
>
> Then again, maybe that's what Rick meant.
>
> Possibly Finale still has better microtonal support than Sibelius ?
>
> - Joel

***I think that *is* possible, since I believe it was posted that
microtonal accidentals or symbols can be *defined* in Finale with
certain pitch bends.

This option is *not* available in Sibelius. But, you can enter pitch
bends in *manually* and some users have automated this process.
There is a "temperaments plug-in" created by Pete Walton, that I've
been "messing around" with.

All this, though, involves *pitch bends* and I believe Rick was
talking about using tuning tables within his synths and just driving
them with 12-tET, not worrying about the exact notation.

That was what *I* read in it, anyway, but like many mortals, I could
be wrong...

J. Pehrson

J. P. wrote:

> and I believe Rick was
> talking about using tuning tables within his synths and just driving
> them with 12-tET, not worrying about the exact notation.

Yes, precisely what I'm doing, as explained in my previous post.

Rick

Fellows,

{you wrote...}
>J. P. wrote:
>
> > and I believe Rick was
> > talking about using tuning tables within his synths and just driving
> > them with 12-tET, not worrying about the exact notation.
>
>Yes, precisely what I'm doing, as explained in my previous post.

And the bizarre connection is that this is the same thing as all the Chromelodeon parts in the music of Harry Partch: while the instrument itself is tuned to the 43 note JI scale he used, and the keys are marked so that you know the ratios they represent (http://www.corporeal.com/instbro/inst12.html), the notation on the page is standard 12tET keyboard notation, which means that a very smooth, step-wise melody gets notated (and played) with all these big leaps. A lot of the stuff ends up looking like Boulez, except that the rhythms are more regular!

Cheers,
Jon