SYNTHESIZER/TUNING INQUIRY

Greetings:

I am an 18/m composer/musician. Recently, I have become extremely
interested in alternate tunings and their possibilities due to my
discovery of the vast inadequacies of the ET system. I am very new
to this expansive field, and it is also quite difficult to decide
which direction it is wise to take. Overall, it is the pursuit for
quality instead of quantity which guides me in my search. It is also
through the realization of the limitations placed on both myself and
my music by the large corporations. They have made it very difficult
for anyone to have a real, individual identity due to the
commerciality of the consumer market. Musically, I wish to seek what
is pure, and now I know that ET is not pure; it is biased. It does
not seem like JI is a set system. It seems like JI has unlimited
possibilities that is a matter of choice of will. It all depends on
how far I wish to go in exploring uncommon and, eventually, unknown
regions in the future.
As of now, though, I am at the beginning. All I have is ET
system instrumentation. I have found that a synthesizer is the best
way to discover the rich possibilities of JI and any other tuning
avenue imaginable. Yet, I do not even know what a synthesizer looks
like. I have never found one which has the capabilities I am looking
for. I do not know how to find one. I basically have no experience
in this new field. I was wondering if any of you have any helpful
suggestions. I would greatly appreciate it. I search for something
which is pure and rare to find, it seems. I have always known that
there has been something missing in the "music" that I have heard
throughout my life. Something which was arbitrary was placed
subjectively there in order to please the masses. I do not see how
anyone, if they knew this, would ever like ET again. The real ratios
are what truly matters. There are ways to get around
the "modulation" problem. It is not difficult. It would only
involve other methods that would be "cumbersome" to others at first.
These methods would make real music much more complex, rich, and
satisfying than anything previously applied. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
PageWizard

On Sun, 22 Jul 2001 22:28:33 -0000, "PageWizard, Magician of the Caverns"
<PageWizard17@aol.com> wrote:

> I am an 18/m composer/musician. Recently, I have become extremely
>interested in alternate tunings and their possibilities due to my
>discovery of the vast inadequacies of the ET system. I am very new
>to this expansive field, and it is also quite difficult to decide
>which direction it is wise to take. Overall, it is the pursuit for
>quality instead of quantity which guides me in my search. It is also
>through the realization of the limitations placed on both myself and
>my music by the large corporations. They have made it very difficult
>for anyone to have a real, individual identity due to the
>commerciality of the consumer market. Musically, I wish to seek what
>is pure, and now I know that ET is not pure; it is biased. It does
>not seem like JI is a set system. It seems like JI has unlimited
>possibilities that is a matter of choice of will. It all depends on
>how far I wish to go in exploring uncommon and, eventually, unknown
>regions in the future.

Actually, the standard ET system, which some call 12-TET (equal temperament
or equal tuning) and others 12-EDO (equal divisions of the octave), is a
pretty good system of tuning for having only 12 notes per octave. But if
you don't mind tuning systems with large number of notes per octave, you
might want to consider 72-note equal temperament (72-TET or 72-EDO, as it's
called). 72-TET has all the advantages of an ET, while being so close to
just tuning that it's hard to tell the difference.

A good introduction to 72-TET/-EDO is on Joe Monzo's page:
http://tonalsoft.com/enc/number/72edo.aspx

The biggest difficulty with 72-TET, if you want to play live music, is
finding an instrument that can play all those notes. The Starr Labs Ztar
looks like the best bet for a MIDI controller that can handle the notes
(although I haven't used one, just heard about it on the list), but you'll
also need a retunable instrument (synthesizer or sampler) that can handle
that many notes. Since there are only 128 separate pitches on a single MIDI
channel, you need to be able to use more than one MIDI channel if you want
a good range.

That's a big difficulty with tuning systems that have so many notes per
octave. Alternatively, you could try a continuous-pitch instrument like the
trombone, bowed string instruments, or fretless guitar (even woodwinds can
be persuaded to produce fine gradations in pitch, as Johnny Reinhard and
others have demonstrated).

I should emphasize that 72-TET isn't the only tuning system of interest,
and that a lot of good music can be done in other temperaments such as
meantone, and many different flavors of JI. 31-TET (which is a meantone) is
another good place to start exploring if you don't mind the slightly flat
fifths. The natural harmonic series is another nice scale to play around
with.

--
see my music page ---> ---<http://www.io.com/~hmiller/music/index.html>--
hmiller (Herman Miller) "If all Printers were determin'd not to print any
@io.com email password: thing till they were sure it would offend no body,
\ "Subject: teamouse" / there would be very little printed." -Ben Franklin

Hello Pagewizard,

I turned up on the tuning list in a similar position to yourself not really that
long ago.

You will find that nearly everyone who offers you help will give you
encouragement that is related to those areas they themselves are interested in.
This is not a bad thing. It is human nature to to teach people so that they
become more like yourself [it means you have more people that you can relate to
! : )].

Mentors are best though when there are lots of them. There are probably as many
approaches to intonation on this list as there are list members !

Jdl and Margo have given you some leads to follow. So will I.

Hopefully other list members will talk about their own approachs to JI [or other
tunings]. And share with you the scales they like using and why.

Some of my interests in tuning are tetrachords [valuable is John Chalmers
"Divisions of the Tetrachord" available from Frogpeak Music or the JI network.],
extended reference tuning for melody [email me offlist for more info].

Some of the other theories that might prove useful for working with JI are
Constant Structures [speak to Kraig Grady, visit the island of anaphoria
website] and Periodicity Blocks [speak to Paul Erlich]

As for synthesisers there is the a website devoted to those with microtuning
abilities.

In a web browser typing 'microtonal synthesis' should find it.

Lastly explore all the ideas and make up your own mind, from listening and
thinking about how important what your being told is for YOUR music making.

<Greetings:

I am an 18/m composer/musician. Recently, I have become extremely
interested in alternate tunings and their possibilities due to my
discovery of the vast inadequacies of the ET system. I am very new
to this expansive field, and it is also quite difficult to decide
which direction it is wise to take. Overall, it is the pursuit for
quality instead of quantity which guides me in my search. It is also
through the realization of the limitations placed on both myself and
my music by the large corporations. They have made it very difficult
for anyone to have a real, individual identity due to the
commerciality of the consumer market. Musically, I wish to seek what
is pure, and now I know that ET is not pure; it is biased. It does
not seem like JI is a set system. It seems like JI has unlimited
possibilities that is a matter of choice of will. It all depends on
how far I wish to go in exploring uncommon and, eventually, unknown
regions in the future.
As of now, though, I am at the beginning. All I have is ET
system instrumentation. I have found that a synthesizer is the best
way to discover the rich possibilities of JI and any other tuning
avenue imaginable. Yet, I do not even know what a synthesizer looks
like. I have never found one which has the capabilities I am looking
for. I do not know how to find one. I basically have no experience
in this new field. I was wondering if any of you have any helpful
suggestions. I would greatly appreciate it. I search for something
which is pure and rare to find, it seems. I have always known that
there has been something missing in the "music" that I have heard
throughout my life. Something which was arbitrary was placed
subjectively there in order to please the masses. I do not see how
anyone, if they knew this, would ever like ET again. The real ratios
are what truly matters. There are ways to get around
the "modulation" problem. It is not difficult. It would only
involve other methods that would be "cumbersome" to others at first.
These methods would make real music much more complex, rich, and
satisfying than anything previously applied. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
PageWizard>

Best wishes

Justin White

DAVID JONES LIMITED ACN 000 074 573

--- In tuning@y..., "Justin White" <justin.white@d...> wrote:

> Some of the other theories that might prove useful for working with
JI are
> Constant Structures [speak to Kraig Grady, visit the island of
anaphoria
> website] and Periodicity Blocks [speak to Paul Erlich]

So far as we have been able to ascertain, these are exactly the same
thing!

> Lastly explore all the ideas and make up your own mind, from
listening and
> thinking about how important what your being told is for YOUR music
making.

Amen!