JICalc for Frets

The following is a little Hypertalk that those interested can plug into
their JICalc stack to calculate Just fret positions. I'm making another
movable-fret guitar and couldn't stand the thought of tapping away at my
hand calculator again. Here's now to install this in your stack:

1) Start up JICalc. This has to run under the regular Hypercard 2.0 or
greater, not Hypercard Player.

2) After selecting a card from the index and click to it, make a new card.

3) Go into field-edit mode under "tools" and make a new field. Place it
somewhere convenient and name it "String Length".

4) Go into button-edit mode under "tools" and select one of the buttons to
calculate the ET +- cent, 1024 or 768, whichever you don't use very much.
Rename it "Fret Pos" or something and replace its script with the following:

on mouseUp
set cursor to 4
get card field "String Length"
put it into strlength
repeat with i=1 to 60
--make sure the field has something in it; skip it otherwise
if line 2 of field i >0 then
--get the ratio
put ((line 1 of field i)-(line 2 of field i))/(line 1 of field i)
into ratio
--multply string length by this ratio and display
put strlength * ratio into line 3 of field i
--display and ratio as a check
put ratio into line 4 of field i
end if
end repeat
end mouseUp

5) Enter some ratios and enter the total string length into the new field.
Click on the Fret Pos button and the string lengths will be displayed.
These are in centimeters for ease in multiplication. Measure these from the
nut. For the octave above past the octave fret, recalculate with half the
string length and place starting at the octave fret.

I use 16- or 18-guage steel wire bent around a fretboard which has had its
old frets removed. This is very similar to a sitar's movable frets. The
fret is held at the back of the neck with either tied fishing wire (this is
even what sitar builders use) or rubber bands (which break quickly but are
good for just a quick check). Different fret positions for different
strings are something this system doesn't allow. It's derived from articles
by David Canright in 1/1. Thanks to him for the information and thanks to
Carter Sholz for sending me the original scripts for the JICalc buttons so I
could modify them.

Steve Curtin
Ensoniq Corp


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>Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 22:12:03 -0500
>From: Mmcky@aol.com
>To: tuning
>Subject: WAV to MIDI
>Message-ID: <951205221105_126183774@mail04.mail.aol.com>
>
>I received a phone call from Basim Daoud, who is into microtuning with a
>Middle Eastern spin. He has a 12 string acoustic instrument that he plays
>monophonically. He would like to record his music in a .WAV file and have it
>translated to MIDI.
>
>Does anyone know of a software package that will do this?

Logic Audio (Mac) has a Audio to score feature that works very well. You
have access to detection parameters such as granulation, attack range,
smooth release, velocity threshold, time correction. After the translation
a window automatically opens with 3 different scores : notes, notes with
undetermined pitch, noises (percussion, fret buzz etc). It even translates
volume in velocity values, but doesn't take vibrato & slide, hence
microtonal intervals, into account.
Some standalone pitch to MIDI converters use pitch bend for that. But MIDI
doesn't give a standard ratio between PB values and cents. On some synths
the curve even varies from note to note.

Good luck

PS I like very much Middle Eastern music. Is the music youre trying to
translate in MIDI "microtonal" because of the Arabian scale quartertones,
or is the tuning orignal ? I'd like to hear it.

PPS is there such a thing as a "microtonality for the rest of us", or
whatever, CD compilation ? where can I find it ?

Vincent Kenis

@< @
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