Wish List - pitch resolution - must be MIDI tuning dump.

To ask manufacturers for low pitch resolution (less then the MIDI tuning
dump), may be fine for the tone-deaf newbies, who are still puzzling over
the fudging of commas.

For microtuning to have "earth-shattering" effects on the consciousness of
players and listeners, we need to be able to accurately control "beating".

Eventually we will get the required 1/196,608 units per octave; so why
encourage the manufacturers to to go for part measures to get there by
stages over decades?

Let's ask NOW for what we eventually want, and get it asap.

Please support and demand the MIDI tuning dump for hi-res tuning.



lucy
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~lucy

Hokay , reality check.

Hate to be a wet blanket, but how many commercial synth co.s do you
think are actually ever going to implement realistic microtuning
capabilities ? All this wish list stuff brings out the kid in me ,but
I've seen
synth models com and go, and "the more things change,the more they stay
the same".
>From the responses I've gotten from co.s (except Ensoniq!)after enquiring
about microtuning,
I'd say fat chance. It isn't up there on their list of "shiny new
features that will
dazzle music store visitors and seperate them from their money."

Patrick Ozzard-Low's posting and the suggestions in it (in Tuning Digest
1443 ,11th June)
is beautiful .BUT,dream on.However, I don't believe it would be
difficult to
implement.If those engineers can pull off 12 voices of physically modelled
real-time synthesis (Korg Z1,1cent res,global table), I think they can
implement the MIDI tuning std. to the letter. Ok, maybe a resolution of
0.0061
would be difficult to pull off,but why not atleast 0.1 cent (1024
divisions
per 12-TET half-step) ? And that menu thing of yours ,Patrick, is very
nice (and simple).

Ensoniqs do 0.4, the Marion did 0.2. Kyma uses a plain old Motorola 56002
and does @0.01 (0.0026Hz).

Anyhow, I'm not holding my breath for people like Yama- +/- -63-ha ,
Ro-12note-land,
E-mu,etc. to give users what they really want. Maybe I'll get the Kyma
in a couple of years,or maybe there'll be a capable software synth
available
soon. The Ensoniq MR/ASR-X are good compromises right now. And,if anyone
does do things right ,it'll be them.They DID put in Gary's 88-CET as a
reset !

In fact here's what I got from Yuichiro Nagai,Director of Marketing,
Ensoniq Japan Incorporated,regarding the MR series & ASR-X :

> pitch tables are set up at the instrument
>level, if you use unisyn you can assign any of the 45 available presets
>orload your own via sysex. There is also a global override that allows you
>to set tables globally for all tracks.
>
>>And,can one switch between different tunings on an individual channel
>>,perhaps by real-time sys-ex dumps ?
>Yes they can be changed by sending a NRPN message. We also support The MIDI
>TUNING STANDARD which allows for single note tuning changes.

And when I asked about user tuning memories;
>To answer your question, yes the MR and X only have one slot for user
>tunings.
> You can do tunings individually as you have noted though. BUT I think you
>underestimate the amount of tunings that are available out of the box. There
>are all the "standard" alternates and some pretty obscure ones too. Many of
>our engineers are big fans of alternate tunings.

For PowerMac users there is the Max-MSP combo that will do perfect
resolution,
specified in Hz!,with considerable real-time synth power
(albeit with ltd. polyphony) for @ $750.

Speaking of software synths ,the Retro AS-1 and
Vibra-9000 are analog *modelling* synths
that can do equal temperaments only, using something called *keytracking*
(I think),that enables you to have more or less notes (per octave ?).

Cheers,
Drew