Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Re: Soft synths and notation recommendations

Hi Joseph,

> ***And it's really only "geek-friendly" with all apologies...

I hope to help remedy that wiht the next release of
Fractal Tune Smithy :-). It implements a way of
letting the user just select CSound instruments
from a drop list or menu like Midi. You can even
set a pan value for each instrument - and
add reverb well - all just by selecting options
in the GUI. So it is very user friendly, you don't
need to even look at a line of CSound code to use it.

You can then render to audio or you can play individual
isntruments in real time using CSoundAV. (That last
possibility requires one to relay the notes to
CSoundAV via a midi relaying program at least
at present - well you can set CSoundAV to
receive the notes from your midi keyboard
but if one is retuning it via software and pitch
bends, then you would need to relay from your
retuning software).

It works by adding extra sections to the now standard
unified CSound file - and works for all the instrumentrs
I've tried it for.

Preparing the instruments for FTS to use in the first
place is a bit techy. But the extra sections only need to be
added the one time, and after that the instrument can be
selected in the normal way. I'll have many example instruments
in the release which are already prepared in this way
so the user can try it out straight away.
Of course users could also share instruments
that they have modified in this way to make
them into ones that can be built up to make
orchestras automatically.

Actually you can already play instruments in
CSoundAV with a bit of preparation to make
them Midi aware. I can give an example instrument
to show how it is done and to try it out
if you are interested. The next release for
FTS will let one play any of the selected
instruments in CSoundAV one at a time.

That also gets around the problem of pitch bend
artefacts for the pitch bending method for those
who get them - because a soft synth properly
programmed needn't have them and CSoundAV certainly
doesn't have any when you use it in this way.

FTS 3.0 will also have options to
record to CSound and then render
ones recording, again without
the need to look at a line
of CSound code.

There's no reason why other
programs shouldn't do this too.
I'm happy to share the techniques
and explain how it is done or
give example code for anyone
who is interested after the
release.

More later.

Robert

Hi Joseph,

> ***Hello Robert!
>
> This looks like a welcome, and well-needed development...

Great!

Actually I have just discovered something else
about using CSoundAV to play microtonal music.

Csound Instruments usually expect the frequency
information to be given to them as a parameter
which means they get the frequency when the note
starts only (it is recieved at the "instruction rate").

This has the effect that normal CSound instruments
converted to work in CSAV usually
don't respond to the pitch bend wheel
- though you can usually re-write
those instruments to respond to it by
changing the frequency to a k (control)
rate variable and bypassing the parameter
assignment at the head of the instrument.

Anyway that is a disadvantage of course, but
also an advantage. The advantage is that you
can then build up almost unlimited pitch polyphony
in any part by just sending the appropriate
pitch bend before the next note to be played.

Well it is limited to 128 pitch bends played
simultaneously in each channel - and
there is a limit on how close together
the notes can cluster - you can play
no more than about 12 notes per octave
- and to have many notes in a small
pitch region, you can have up to
five notes nearly identical in pitch
like this:

60 bent up by 2 semitones
61 bent up by 1
62 no bend
63 bent down by 1
64 bent down by 2

But compared to normal midi that
is virtually unlimited :-).
I just tried it out in the
debugger in FTS, and it
does work.

I read somewhere that that way
of responding to pitch bends is
valid for a mid synth - it is just
never implemented because usually
you want it to respond to the pitch
bend wheel which is higher prioirity
than permitting pitch bend polyphony
in every channel. Anyway with
CSoundAV with the instruments programmed,
one can explore this pitch polyphony
idea for interpreting pitch bends.

I'm now thinking about how to
make that available to the
user in FTS for auto building the
orchestra.

Then, with that option then it will almost
be as good as using tuning tables.

You can also set up the
CSound instruments with tuning
tables too - using a format
very like the Scala one
with a 1/1 pitch and
a scale specified,
which can be non octave.

That is fine if you are keeping
to the same tuning all the way through
but is no good if you want
to change the tuning interactively
during the piece, or want to
use a tuning which has more than
128 notes in it in total
(e.g. one of the high number n-ets)
or is open ended (like my fibonacci
tone scapes).

Anyway thought you might be interested
in that development too.

Robert

Re: Soft synths and notation recommendations - CSoundAV

🔗Robert Walker <robertwalker@...>

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

🔗Robert Walker <robertwalker@...>

🔗Robert Walker <robertwalker@...>