my entry

Jon Szanto has a great idea about documenting various peoples'
procedures for "MakingMicroMusic" and the following is *my* entry!:

__________

Essentially, my microtonal process begins with Scala on the IBM.
It's possible to hear any n-tET as well as a myriad of scales in the
Scala archive, especially now since Scala has "MIDI relaying"
(meaning you can play it directly from your MIDI keyboard with just a
normal sound card.)

After selecting my scales and determining the tuning I want to use, I
send the tuning as a MIDI file to my two TX81Zs. I use two of them
since each only gives independent polyphony of 8 voices. This way,
obviously, I have 16. If I want to use chords, I have to use several
voices on one channel, so that eats up the 16 total quite quickly.

It's easy to send a Scala tuning to the TX81Z. Simply use
the "SEND/FILE" command in Scala and use a .mid suffix. That's all
there is too it! The file is saved someplace on your computer and
then played with a sequencer into the TX81Z. Of course, the TX81Z
must be selected in SET SYNTH. (In the case of the TX81Z it's #101).

For the sequencer, I use Digital Orchestrator Pro and the TX81Zs are
hooked up to my computer by the use of the very flexible MIDISPORT
4x4 that supplies MIDI input and output ports to all my software (and
connects to the computer via a handy USB cable). The tuning MIDI
file must be played at a very slow tempo, say 16 beats per measure,
in order to work.

One goes to the "Edit Full Keyboard" selection under "Edit Micro
Tune" on the TX81Z and plays the .mid tuning file as tuned by Scala
above. A bunch of numbers whir on the Z's screen (that's the full
keyboard tuning being implemented!) and then, when you select
your "performance mode" patches, you are playing the microtonal
scales through the Zs, provided you have set the patches
to "microtonality enabled."

From there, it's simply a matter of selecting the appropriate ports
and channel in the sequencer (one TX81Z is on one port, the other on
another – this you can easily set with the MIDISPORT selections).
Each instrument should be on a separate channel, unless one wants
chords in which case more than one voice is assigned to the same
channel. This is all done on the front panel of the Z.

From there, one just makes music using the sequencer. The Digital
Orchestrator Pro, like most sequencers, uses a "piano roll"
notation. Since there is microtonal tuning, the notes of the piano
roll no longer correspond to 12-equal letter notes. Therefore, if
one wishes to notate a piece, there must be a "transliteration"
process after composition so that the "correct" note on a staff is
put down on music paper. At this point, I do this manually, and use
the Sibelius notation program to make the final written score. I
don't use Sibelius for playback of extensively microtonal scores,
since it doesn't do a great job of it. I only use that function in
Sibelius for more conventional work in 12-equal which, quite frankly,
I still do sometimes.

Once a microtonal piece is finished in the sequencer, it's time to
record it. For this I use SoundForge. It's easy to just start up
the SoundForge recording software, and then start the sequencer.
Provided the recording levels are set correctly in the computer,
SoundForge will record the input going into the soundcard from the
sequencer with no problem. No additional software or hardware is
required.

Once the piece is recorded in SoundForge, one can add some post-
processing, such as a bit of reverb and save the piece as a .wav file.

.wav files can, of course, be burned to audio CDs through a myriad of
available software (I use "Easy CD Creator).

The piece is then available to be played through any CD player for
the (one might hope!) anxiously awaiting public... :)

Joseph Pehrson