A moment of silence

FROM: mclaren
TO: new practical microtonality group
SUBJECT: A moment of silence

First, let's all observe a moment of silence for the innocent who
perished in the recent hecatomb. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the relatives and spouses and friends of those who died so needlessly and so tragically.
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Haven't checked in at this discussion group for a few weeks. No doubt many folks have not kept up for obvious reasons. The past week has not abounded with joy and delight, nor afforded opportunites for such essentially frivolous luxuries as surfing internet discussion groups about microtonality.
However, other reaons for my absence obtrude. Among other activities, setting up a digital video editing suite. By heavens, it actually talks to the digital camcorder -- miracle of miracles. A piece of computer equipment that actually works! This has several implications, among the most notable, the opportunity to expand the "INTRODUCTION TO MICROTONALITY" audio CD onto videotape to provide a video + audio intro to microtonality.
Videotape provides cheap and universal format (within the US, anyway). And, while the sound quality ain't as good as the audio CD, it's good enough to get the basic concepts of microtonality across.
Many thanks to Joseph Pehrson for his kind words about my book
"Microtonality: Past, Present, Future." The good news? Those of you
interested can look forward to plenty more information about microtonality in the relatively more accessible format of videotape. This digital video editing system makes that possible. Combined with Macromedia Director (which came with my scanner) and the usual suspects (digital retunable synths, Csound, etc.) this offers the unprecedented possibility of generating an entire multimedia presentation on videotape for people interested in various aspects of microtonality.
Planned projects include the generat intro to xenharmonics, and
specific videotapes covering JI, ET, NJ NET, psychoacoustics, microtonal notation, and various other subjects including the history of
microtonality, microtonal keyboards, and so on.
You'd be surprised how effective still pictures with music and
narration can be. We all remember Ken Burns' superb documentary "The Civil War," and that's all he did -- just still pictures + narration + music. The same seems to work extremely well for microtonality, judging by preliminary efforts, and that currently takes up a good deal of my spare time.
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Some of you may know of my work with light shows. We're not talking digital light shows here. Too much of that sludge around -- cheesy jaggy fractals and Bliss Paint color palette rotation. Wake me when it's over Rather, the original classic 1960s analog light shows, refined and modified by some 20-plus years of experimentation and innovation. Another currentproject involves digitally editing digital camcorder tapes of these light shows and combining them with frame-accurate-synchronized digital audio (namely, my microtonal music as well as the microtonal music of Bill Wesley
and Jeff Stayton and Jonathan Glasier).
Tapes of these light shows done to microtonal music will soon become available. E-mail if interested. Of course virtually none of the fanatically incurious ideologues who dominate T*H*I*S group will be interested -- talking about something like analog light shows combined with microtonal music to most of the folks in _this_ group is about like the appearance of the black monolith at the start of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. I'd have better luck trying to sell snow in Antarctica.
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Perhaps the best way to defy terrorism is to pick up and continue
everyday life uncowed by the cowards and pissant punks who perpetrated those crimes in New York.
In that vein, some hands-on practical down-'n-dirty info for folks
interested in microtonality. Folks intruiged, but not quite exactly sure
where to start making actual microtonal music from a hardware standpoint.
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First, you do NOT need megabucks to get microtones. Some folks have promulgated the notion that you must spend many thousands of dollars to buy exotic special MIDI keyboards and unique ultra-expensive digital synthesizers like the Kyma (a full system of Kyma with all 8 cards will set you back more than $10,000).
But you don't need all that.
Here are 4 different cheap simple systems that will let you do all the microtonal music your little heart desires:

SYSTEM 1 -- ULTRA-CHEAP
Used 80286 or 8088 laptop computer. KEE serial interface. Cakewalk for DOS 4.0 or better. Used Alesis Microverb reverb unit. TX81Z synthesizer. Radio Shack MIDI keyboard. SCALA software.

What's the total cost of this system? Less than $350.00. Let's
break it down: a used 80286 or 8088 computer can be purchased for less than $20 at plenty of surplus electronics stores. For example, yesterday noticed a Toshiba T3200 laptop in the local electronics surplus store for $15. This DOS 80286 laptop boasts an ISA slot (!) The addition of a cheap used MPU-401-compatible MIDI card will turn such a computer into a full DOS MIDI workstation. A good used MIDI card can be purchased on ebay for $20 or less -- they sell opcode MPU-401-compatible cards dirt cheap elsewhere, for instance, Sam Ash, or Daddy's Junky Music, etc. If you want
32 channels of DOS MIDI output/input, you can spend a little more and get a used Sound Quest MQX-32. Either way, the Toshiba T3200 laptop offers an excellent entry point into cheap MIDI sequencing. (Tried it out, and it booted right up. Bought it on the spot. Nice unit!)
An older DOS laptop works great for DOS sequencing. Cheap and portable -- and when the hard disk burns out, you dump it and buy another antique laptop for another $10 or $15. (Remember to back up those MIDI files on floppy, kiddies.) No one seems to want these older DOS-only laptops with 640K of RAM, but they work superbly for MIDI sequencing.
Other models of laptop which work well include the original Compaq luggable (yes, I own one), any of the Zenith Supersport series (either the 8088 or 80286 or the 80386 models work well), and the Toshiba T3200 and T5200.
The Toshiba T5200 features an EGA display, nice orange plasma screen, works especially well in Cakewalk for DOS 4.0.
If you can't find a Toshiba T3200 laptop with a built-in ISA port,
never fear... You can buy a cheap used KEE serial interface. MIne cost a whopping big $6 used. Cakewalk 4.0 for DOS includes a driver for the KEE interface, and this has been my primary portable MIDI sequencing setup for 12 years. Cakewalk for DOS 4.0 talks directly to the KEE serial interface and doesn't drop a note. It's almost as good as an Atari Stacy laptop, but MUCH cheaper! Atari STACEYs cost about $500 - $700 used nowadays, alas. Superb units, but ultra mega hyoer overpriced.
The TX81Z synth comes with no keyboard, but generates a wide variety of timbres. You get excellent percussive timbres, wonderful bells, and fine harpsichords and strings and some fairly decent synthetic brass. The woodwinds prove less impressive, but passable withal. Randy Winchester is currently finishing up an entire CD he created only a TX81Z.
The TX81Z is a *fully* microtunable synth. This means that you can set any midi note on the synth to any desired pitch whatsoever. There are no limitations at all, unlike, say, a Kurzweil synth (which does ETs pretty well but produces real problems with JI or NJ NET) or synths like the JV-1080, which require the user to enter elaborate and complex keymaps and go through all kinds of rigamorole. You can simply send the tuning file from SCALA to the TX81Z and voila! The synth is fully retuned.
Cakewlk 4.0 for DOS contains a widev ariety of drivers for many
different MIDI cards and works well enough to allow you to create a great deal fo sophisticated music. To give you some idea, it's the sequencer Your Humbel E-mAil Correspondent still uses today, on DOS, on an 8088 computer. (How's *that* for obsoletismo?)
You do NOT need a super-expensive Windows ME computer with gigs of RAM and mega-gigabytes of disk space and a 1.2 gigahrez Pentium IV CPU to do MIDI sequencing. A 20 MHZ 80286 processor and 640K of RAM are plenty.
The Alesis Microverb is one of the best reverbs every built even
today. This unit received lots of praise on the other discussion group I
belong to, atari-midi. A while back we discussed using superb but
obsolete and dirt cheap effects and reverb units. Among those recommended: the BOSS SE-70 (excellent), the Zoom 1010 (one of the best reverbs ever built, with tons of exotic effects like vocoder and ring modulator, PLUS it's full stereo!), the ALesis MIcroverb and the Alesis Midiverb I and MIdiverb II, the Lexicon LXP-5, and the really outstanding Digitech DSP128 and DSP 256.
Most of these reverbs will cost you less than $100 used and they all sound excellent. I mean, really outstanding. You can do an entire CD using these reverbs and it will sound *good*. Today's reverbs have added plenty of features, and boast multiple different simultaneous effects...but older units like the DSP128 still sound absolutely outstanding, and I highly recommen 'em. I fact, I use 2 different DSP256s to get a variety of different effects on my CDs. I use this stuff, and it sounds great. Best of all, it costs next to nothing. Often you can find a used Lexicon LXP-5 or DSP128 on ebay or elsewhere for under $75. How can you beat ThAT?

ALTERNATIVE DIRT CHEAP MICROTONAL SETUP
Some of you may find alphanumeric interfaces like DOS offensive. This is a matter of personal taste. Some folks like point-and-click interfaces like the Mac OS, while others (like myself) tend to go for
command-line-type interfaces like DOS. It's a personal preference.
Fortunately, you can also get a superb point-and-click Macintosh
interface computer used nowadays for hte same low price as a used 80286 or 8088 DOS laptop.
An alternative point-and-click-interface Mac0based microtonal setup would use:

Used Mac Plus or Mac Classic -- cost about $20. Used Mac MIDI
interface -- about $10 or so (the one-in/one-out Mac interfaces go for next to nothing, since everyone wants the 128-channel MIDI interfaces today). EZVision or Vision Pro -- I bougth a used copy of Vision for the Mac 68XXX for $35. This is pretty typical, and it's an awesomely powerful sequencer -- all point-and-click, with plenty of nice pretty pictures and graphics on-screen for those of you who prefer that kind of sequencing interface.
JICalc for Hypercard 1.0, downloadable free from the web, will let
you produce any kind of JI or ET or NJNET tuning you like. Send Robert Rich 15 bucks shareware fee if you like the program.
The rest of the equipment is the same -- used TX81Z , $100 or less, and a used DSP128 or Alesis McirVerb, $100 or less. Used or on-sale Radio Sahck MIDI keyboard, available anywhere for between $100 and $150.

Either of these setups will cost you less than about $350, but you'll
get a full-featured no-compromise MIDI sequencing system. You'll be able to tune to any kind of intonation whatever -- any ET from 5 to 144 equal or beyond, any kind of JI tuning from 3 limit to 3067-limit or beyond, and any kind of NJNET tuning at all. The reverb, while cheap, sounds excllent (DSP128 and Zoom 1010 especially recommended, though the ALesis MIdiVerb with setting 22 remains perhaps the single best reverb ever created), and the combo of Mac Plus + Opcode or Apple MIDI interface, or 80286/8088 laptop + KEE serial interface works superbly. I have lugged such systems all across the US and they work like a champ. You can record and sequence and edit anywhere, creating entire symphonies and concerti with a very compact portable footprint.

SYSTEM #2 -- MIDRANGE COST

Some of you may want greater capabilities in creating microtonal
music. Combining sampling with FM synthesis exponentially expands your musical options. To add an excellent sampler, tack on about $250 extra for an EPS sampler or EPS-M (a rackmount version of the EPS).
The EPS is a 13-bit companded sampler, and it will sound a little
noisy if you use it by itself. But combined with other synths, the EPS
shines. Best of all, the EPS remains the ONLY sampler with a built-in
tuning table. So if you want to do sampling, you MUST get an EPS (or the more expensive EPS-16+, or ASR-10, or ASR-X Pro).
So this second system will set you back about $600 total. Bear in mind that this is much less than the cost of a new computer nowadays, or for that matter even the most bare-bones brand-new synth. Yet you can create a whole universe of sounds on these setups.

SYSTEM #3 -- SOPHISTICATED

A truly deluxe microtonal sequencing/synth setup might include more than one MIDI module. The E-Mu Vintage Keys works very well, and can be had used for less than bout $150. Or you ight prefer the E-Mu Proteus I or II or III, or Proteus FX. ALl used less than about $200.
You might also choose to upgrade your computer. To run Csound
you'll need at least a fast 80486 computer. Fortunately, used Pentium
computers are now available on the used market for less than about $400. So if you got a used Pentium computer (to run Csound) and added another MIDI module, the total might run you as much as $1200.
Note, however, that you would get a full Csound system, a MIDI
sequencing evnironment, and at least 3 different dedicated synthseiers.
Some folks have touted software-only synths like Reaktor or VAZ
modular. My own expereince indicates that software-only synths tend to suffer from some limitations. For one thing, they generally require a HUGE amount of CPU horsepower -- more than you can get out of a Pentium 100 or 200 processor. Moreover, deidcated synths simply tend to sound better -- more parameters, more complex and subtle sounds, more parameters to fiddle with, and a MUCH easier time tuning. Tuning VA modular or Reaktor is reportedly still a reall pain in the butt.
So for the presnt, until used Pentium II-266 machines drop in price,
I'd avoid software-only synths unless you have VERY deep pockets.

SYSTEM #4 -- COST IS NO OBJECT

If you really have bucks to burn, try getting a used Power PC G3 unit with an Audiomedia Card (coutnon at least $1200 for that combo) or a used Pentium II-333 or Pentium II system with a high-end Malbu or Gina or Lola soundcard (again, that combo will cost you about $1200, give or take).
Tack on the low-end Unity DS-1 (for Mac) sampling software that turns your entire computer into a monster real-time MIDI-controlled sampler, or for the IBM PC try the cheapest version of GigaSampler. Both Gigasampler and Bitheadz Unity DS-1 will cost you about $300 if you buy 'em used or el cheapo mail order.
For a truly superb reverb, any of the brand new models will work very well -- the Alesis Quadraverb II, the Roland SRV-3030, you name it. These run about $300 or so, and sound fantastic. They will also give you mondo amounts of different effects simultaneously.
If you want deluxe microtonal fully retunable sampling, try the
Ensoniq ASR-10. This unit wills et you back about $1000 used. It remains the only sampler with a pitch table -- absolutley *vital*, if you want to do microtonal music with a sampler. Jacky Ligon has been struggling with a non-retunabel sampler, and he will agree that it's sheer torture to try anything but a sampler with a pitch table, and Ensoniq makes the only ones out there.
Alternatively, if you own a Mac G3 or G4, try MetaSynth. It's an
unique and exotic-sounding synthesis sequencing environment that sounds like nothing else on the market. Best of all, it's fully microtunable.
If you prefer exotic lush synthesis methods, grab a used Waldorf
MicroWave or an E-Mu Morpheus. These samplers go for about $900-$1200 used,
and sound like nothing else out there.
This would be a truly excessive setup, but would open the doors to whole sonic universes. The option of combining Csound with MIDI-controlled live synths also opens whole new doors.
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Those of you whose play woodwinds can add a (used) Yamaha WX-11 wind controller. Those of you who are guitarists can grab a used MIDI guitar setup and without much trouble bolt the pickup on your guitar. It works pretty well, save for a few problems with false triggering of certain notes under certain circumstances.
For percussionists, consider a Buchla Lightning or the KAT MIDI
Marimba. Used, these don't cost much more than a few hundred bucks.
Of course keyboardists will find themselves well satisfied with
conventional piano-type keyboards, once you get used to hearing strange new pitches when you play familiar keys.
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Those of you on a budget will surely find something here you can
afford. Even if you can only save up $300 in a year, you can still create a fully-functional extremely adaptable MIDI system.
The idea, bandied about on that intellectual sewer misnamed "the
tuning list," that you must spend many thousands on exotic MIDI keyboards and souped-up DSP engines like the KYMA or DCsound running on monster Pentium IV or Mac G4 computers, is just not true. You can create elaborate and complex and highly sophisticated microtonal music with very simple very cheap equipment. I started out using the Ensoniq Mirage with Dick Lord's alternative operating system back in late 1985/early 1986, and some of that music is still found on my CDs. Some of it still holds up. You do not need fabulously expensive ultra-hi-tech equipment to create vivid and memorably beautiful microtonal music.
All you need is a little cash, some talent, and genuine dedication.
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Robert Valentine asked about the #1 computer composer on the planet.
This is just my ignorant and inconconsequential opinion, but
Jean-Claude Risset seems by far the best computer composer who ever lived. Risset alone creates every composition by hand. That means -- no automation, no fractal composition, no labor-saving junk that cuts down on the work but tends to fill up the composition with aimless noodling.
Jean_Claude Risset pioneered the digital analysis and resynthesis of sounds at Bell Labs in the early 1960s. Since then, he has created many masterpieces, including Mutations (1966), Songes (1978), Inharmonique (1974) and many others. Each of Risset's pieces of computer music seems like a masterwork, and each requires many years of effort. Risset has explored a staggering variety of different techniques -- FM, additive, subtractive, nonlinear distortion, sheaprd tones, and many many others. Some of Risset's compositions use true quadraphonic sound (4 digital channels).
Interestingly enough, Risset's computer music is also consistently
microtonal. Inharmonique (1974) pioneered the use of inharmonic series and non-just non-equal-tempered tunings (those of who who imagine I created that idea, disabuse yourself -- geniuses like Risset were doing it LONG before Your Humble E-Mail Correspondent came on the scene), while Mutations (1966) uses harmonic series 1-60, various NJ NET tunings, as does Songes (1978) and many other Risset masterworks.
You can find Risset's music on the label INA-GRM (number INA C 1003) The title is "Risset - Sud, Dialogues, Inharmonique, Mutations," if memory serves) an import title avalable from the electornic music foundation. You'll also find Risset's computer music on the Wergo Schallplaten disc The Computer Music of Jean-Claude Risset.

#2 William Schottsteadt. Also consistnety microtonal. however, the sheer power and overwhleming talent would distinguish Schottstaedt's computer music regardless of its tuning. Some of his greatest work is collected on the Wergo CD "Dinosaur Music," but much of the very best of Bill Schottsteadt's greatest music in not available on disc. He was kind enough to send me a DAT of his unreleased computer music, and it's non-stop masterworks from one end to the other. Especially outstadning: Colony I - V, and Where Are You Now That I need You? (The latter uses 144/oct ET to unforgettable effect.) Bill Schottsteadt is the main computer genius at CCRMA at Stanford, the inventor of the PLA language, as well as the author of Common Music, a fantastically comprehsnsive and powerful LINUX-based comopsition/synthesis lagnauge based on Common LISP. Schottstaedt pioneered the FM violin software instrument along with many other techniques, though he is also a maste rof musique concrete, as he superb entry "Leviathan" on Wergo Computer Music Series CD #3 amply proves. Also notable: the computer-generate brassage "Wait For Me!" on Perspectives of New Music CD #28.

#3 John Chowning. The inventor of FM and one of the greatest
computer composers of all time. Alas, he has created only about 45 minutes
of computer music ove rthe last 25 years, probably as a result of beign
tapped to head CCRMA at Stanford. Chowning created the first on-line computer music faciltiy in the world in 1964, and he has not stopped innovating since then. You can find all his music, includes such outstanding masterworks as "Turenas" and "Stra" and "Phonei" on the Wergo CD "The Computer Music of John Chowning."

#4 James Dashow. He pioneered the idea of combining timbre with tuning in his breakthrough 1980 CMJ article "Spectra As Chords," following up on John R. Pierce's 1966 article "Attainign Consonance in Arbitrary Scales" in JASA. Based in Italy, Dashow has worked with relatively less sophisticated computer equipment to produce outstanding music.
Particulalry mmeorable: "Whispers Out of Time," a finalist in the annual eurosholock Bourges Festival electro-music sludgefest (generally they only award crap and no-talents, but once in a while a talented composer slips through into their awards by accident).
The CD "The Computer Music of James Dashow" proves disapointing, since it ignores much of Dashow's superb early work for a large dollop of his more recent opera "Archmiedes." Nonetheless, Dashow's music remains outstadning, albeit mostly availble now only on LP.

#5 Barry Truax. Currently workingwith granular synthesis in real
time, Truax also pioneered real-time FM with a sophisticated interactive compositional system he wrote himself. Truax's CD "Pacific Rim," Cambridge Street Records CD CSR-CD 9101, contains cuhmasterowrks as East Wind, Arras (in extended JI), the Wings of Nike (NJ NET using granular synthesis), and Pacific (using FM and additive).

#6 Paul Lansky. Lansky's music has been collected on several CDs, all outstanding. He pioneered the use of Linear Predictive Coding, AKA digital vocoding in such music as "Idle Chatter" and "More Idle Chatter." Check for his CDs on the electronic music foundation -- all are superb.

#7 Jon Appleton. Starting out as one of America's greatest
electronic tape composers with the LP "The Electronic Music of Jon
Appleton" (which he was astounded to learn I actually found crawling
through record shops in 1986), Jon has moved on to working with the
Synclavier, which he helped design. HIs compositions "Brush Canyon" and "degitaru Ongaku" can be heard on CDCM Computer Music Series Volume 6, as well as on a series of eponymous CDs released through the Smithsonian Institution.

#8 Jonathan Berger A virtuoso composer who effortlessly combines a vast range of techniques with live instruments. Other folks have done this, but never as well. You can find his music on the CDCM series of computer music CDs.

#9 Richard Karpen A composer who combines white-hot intensity with cutting-edge synthesis techniques. You can find his music on both the CDCM series of CDs and the Wergo computer music series of CDs, both available from the electronic music foundation.

#10 A tie between Cindy McTee and Larry Polansky and Laurie Spiegel and Dexter Morrill. You can find all of these composers on the CDCM series and some of 'em on the Wergo Computer Music series of CDs. Okay, okay -- so we're talking 13 computer composers all told. So sue me. Oy gevalt, I should limit myself to base ten already? Puh-lease. SPECIAL NOTE: Alurie Speigel just released another of her superb computer music CDs. That makes two all told. Fortuantely, she has bezillions of tapes still awaiting release...or so she avers. Hurry up 'n buy her latest CD so she can get the cash to release plenty more!
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The above prejudices remain mere personal opinion and thus
insignificant. If you want to decide for yourself who the best computer
composers are, buy the CDCM series of computer music series and the Wergo Computer Music series (about 10 CDs each. The CDCM series has many more now, but after volume 11 the CDCM series turned into "Larry Austin's worthless junk collection." The earlier CDs in the CDCM collection remain outstanding, however.) You can find both series at the Electronic Music Federation run by Joel Chabade. Do a google serach for EMF and Chadabe.
Many folks don't realize that algorithmic composition actually
started as a labor-saving device by desperate computer composers in the 1960s. Typing in every one of the millions of alphanumeric symbols required to specify a serious timbrally complex computer music score, then waiting while it all compiles, and then painstakingly modifing each of those millions of nitpicky symbols... Well, life passes you by. That kind of gutbusting scutwork has proven too wearisome for most computer composers. (Risset and Chowning, the best of the best, remain exceptions -- as always.) As a result, all too many computer composers have either moved on to the let's-churn-out-a-stream-of-random-swill school of composition, which substitutes a sieved torrent of random noise for creativity, or the let's-wow-the-suckers-with-a-new-algorithm school of computer music, in which increasingly elaborate mathematical techniques of sound synthesis substitute for creativity.
Alas, even the most troglodytic audience quickly discerns crap when it hears it. As a result, as John Oswald points out in his article "Why Computer Music Sucks," `most computer music has frozen around the concerns of the avant-garde around the time it was intitated." Circa 1970 or so. Most -- but not all.
There remain many excellent computer composers, most outcasts, few having won any awards or having gained any recognition from empires of mediocrity like the Bourges Awards.
In particular, electronic muisc (both tape and computer music) seem to have a positive animus for women. Why? Dunno. But the single greatest tape composers remain women, and some of the best computer composers are women (Laurie Spiegel, Cindy McTee). The crass sexism in computer music, which marginalizes women for refusing to play the My-Algorithm-is-Bigger-Than-Yours game, remains shameful and bizarre. Nonetheless, superb female computer computers continue to produce excellent work, and they have been recorded on CD -- it takes a while to ferret 'em out from under the algorithmic testosterone and mathematical macho of the male computer composers, but they're there... And well worth looking for.
Lastly, as a side benefit for those who subscribe to this tuning
discussion, most computer composers use microtonality to some extent. Freed of the strictures of 12 equal, most computer composers eagerly abandon the standard straitjackets of Wester Music Theory (such as the 16th century 5-limit JI supersittions, the harmonic series superstition, and the rest of the dead intellectual baggage from the Platonic mystical numerology so popular throughout the Renaissance) in favor of entirely new musical paradigms. Viz., inharmonic series and NJ NET tunings (Dashow, Chowning, Risset, Pierce, et al.; various different ETs (Schottstaedt, Morrill, et al), spectra as chords (Risset, Pierce, Truax, Dashow, et al) and so on.
A real intonational smorgasboard awaits those willing to awaken from the mindless mantra of Pythagorean zombification and take a step or two outside the 5-limit JI jail cell to explore the limitless open fields of computer music on CD.
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--mclaren