Project Report - The Photon

Hi, I just joined the list. Here is a report on a project I'm working on that could lead to a microtonal wind instrument:

I'm developing a wind controller that would be capable of microtonal playing. Right now it's research, but I hope it may be a product someday. It's described on my website here: http://members.shaw.ca/photonwind/

Specifically, for microtonal playing, the 8 finger keys detect not just being pressed, but the location they are pressed, or alternatively the tilt after they are pressed. They also detect pressure or aftertouch. Octaves are selectable either with your lip/tongue from the mouthpiece or with your thumb on a controller. All this is highly customizable - initially only through changing the embedded code, but in the future there may be a PC/Mac hosted user interface for it. I may offer the hardware controller for sale, and make the software open source if there is enough interest.

The fingering system is designed to be able to emulate the fingering patterns of wind instruments - sax, clarinet, flute, trumpet, occarina, etc, as well as emulating the mouthpiece control. The goal is that a single hardware platform will support these capabilities, all customizable just by changing software. It would also be possible to create "alternative fingerings" for the desired number of notes within an octave. These would then repeat for other octaves using an octave selection system (lip/tongue, or thumb). I also have a method in mind that could allow the 8 keys to be played sort of like a melodica, but with the possibilities of bending between notes or selecting specific microtonal pitches between notes.

One would have to come up with a way of mapping pitches to midi either with base notes plus pitch bends associated with microtonal notes, or by mapping to note numbers where the synth is not tuned in octaves. I'm also thinking of providing a non midi way of connecting it to a PC to send raw controller actions to softsynths such as max/msp or Reaktor or Perry Cook's midi toolkit, which would bypass the limitations of midi.

I've been working on this for about four years, and have now prototyped and tested all the subcomponents of the instrument, sometimes attached to commercial wind controllers. I'm now in the process of building a complete instrument.

Can members of the list suggest useful or commonly used ways to map microtonal notes to midi for live playing? Base notes plus pitch bends? Retuning note numbers? Are there standards for this used by the microtonal community?

- Chris Graham

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Graham"
<chris_e_gr@y...> wrote:
> One would have to come up with a way of mapping pitches to midi
either with
> base notes plus pitch bends associated with microtonal notes, or by
mapping
> to note numbers where the synth is not tuned in octaves.

Plain MIDI note numbers should be fine for synths that support tuning
tables. However, there should be an option to assign separate MIDI
channels to specified pitch regions, for those who want to work with
tunings that use up a lot of MIDI note numbers (eg. 88t-ET). Perhaps
making cross-fades an optional part of this should be a consideration.

The option to use MIDI pitch bend in conjuction with note number for
synths with no tuning support is a good one to include. But then you
would probably want to support loading a tuning into the instrument's
internal software.

I'm also thinking
> of providing a non midi way of connecting it to a PC to send raw
controller
> actions to softsynths such as max/msp or Reaktor or Perry Cook's midi
> toolkit, which would bypass the limitations of midi.

Have you considered Open Sound Control (OSC)? Both Max/MSP (via
add-on) and Reaktor support it.

Paolo

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "paolovalladolid" <phv40@h...>
wrote:
>
> > of providing a non midi way of connecting it to a PC to send raw
> controller
> > actions to softsynths such as max/msp or Reaktor or Perry Cook's midi
> > toolkit, which would bypass the limitations of midi.
>
> Have you considered Open Sound Control (OSC)? Both Max/MSP (via
> add-on) and Reaktor support it.

Chris,

I don't know if you're still on this group or even considering
including OSC in your Photon's feature set, but here's the OSC main
page - apologies for not giving it to you in the first place:

http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/

Among the links posted on the page are links to hardware devices, such
as sensor-to-OSC converters, which may be of interest to you.

Paolo