good keyboard for playing in different tunings

Hi y'all...

I was wondering if anyone out there knew what a good
keyboard to buy thing to do for a guy who wants to
screw around with different tet's, just intonation,
etc. At the bare minimum, I should be able to remap
the tones coming out of there, but ideally, i'd be
able to play 19-tet with the same ease as 12-tet
(besides the lack of repetition every octave, i have
smallish hands, so just saying every P12 is an octave
won't really work for me)... Any ideas? Preferably,
cheap ones ;-)

Thanks for your time,
Brian Szymanski
bks10@cornell.edu

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In-Reply-To: <20011128094526.90051.qmail@web13504.mail.yahoo.com>
Brian Szymanski wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone out there knew what a good
> keyboard to buy thing to do for a guy who wants to
> screw around with different tet's, just intonation,
> etc. At the bare minimum, I should be able to remap
> the tones coming out of there, but ideally, i'd be
> able to play 19-tet with the same ease as 12-tet
> (besides the lack of repetition every octave, i have
> smallish hands, so just saying every P12 is an octave
> won't really work for me)... Any ideas? Preferably,
> cheap ones ;-)

Are you looking for an alternative keyboard layout or a retunable
synthesizer? What qualifies as "cheap"?

Graham

> Are you looking for an alternative keyboard layout
> or a retunable synthesizer? What qualifies as
> "cheap"?

I am looking for at the bare minimum, a retunable
synthesizer... If there was some way I could pop
off/add keys as I desired, that would be a bonus, but
that may or may not exist... Cheap means under $1000 I
guess... Or if that's impossible, the cheapest ones
out there... Thanks again for your time,

Brian Szymanski
bks10@cornell.edu

>
>
> Graham
>
>
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In-Reply-To: <20011129065312.85930.qmail@web13506.mail.yahoo.com>
Brian Szymanski wrote:

> I am looking for at the bare minimum, a retunable
> synthesizer... If there was some way I could pop
> off/add keys as I desired, that would be a bonus, but
> that may or may not exist... Cheap means under $1000 I
> guess... Or if that's impossible, the cheapest ones
> out there... Thanks again for your time,

Check <http://home.att.net/~microtonal/>. I don't know if there's
anything recent with full keyboard tuning for that price. You could get a
TX81Z and use it with a generic input keyboard. Or use a software
synthesizer or pitch bend retuning.

Graham

--- In tuning@y..., graham@m... wrote:

/tuning/topicId_30801.html#30827

> In-Reply-To: <20011129065312.85930.qmail@w...>
> Brian Szymanski wrote:
>
> > I am looking for at the bare minimum, a retunable
> > synthesizer... If there was some way I could pop
> > off/add keys as I desired, that would be a bonus, but
> > that may or may not exist... Cheap means under $1000 I
> > guess... Or if that's impossible, the cheapest ones
> > out there... Thanks again for your time,
>
> Check <http://home.att.net/~microtonal/>. I don't know if there's
> anything recent with full keyboard tuning for that price. You
could get a
> TX81Z and use it with a generic input keyboard. Or use a software
> synthesizer or pitch bend retuning.
>
>
> Graham

Hello Brian (as a response to Graham's post)...

Well, personally, the TX81Z route is what *I* did. I was able to get
a full-sized keyboard at Sam Ash here in New York for $500. A used
TX81Z costs around $200 (some say you can get them cheaper but it's
sometimes difficult). The best way to locate one is one the Web.
There are music stores that sell such used equipment.

I'm, using *two* of them now. Of course, this setup is still
pretty "primitive" by "studio" standards, but I was still having some
luck with my pieces for a while... getting public performances, etc...

As to the "software synth" approach, I would be careful. I
purchased "Infinity" from Midi Quest, and I *still* can't get it to
do much of anything. The manuals are not really all that well
written; in fact, they haven't even bothered to consolidate two
manuals from two different versions! You have to pretty much figure
it out for yourself. If you're an electrical engineer who has worked
with synthesizers, this is probably not a problem. Alas, though,
that's not my *own* background...

Just a warning about that. On the other hand, Graham Breed has
pointed out some softsynths that look at bit more "intuitive..."

Joe Pehrson

--- In tuning@y..., <xbrianskix@y...> wrote:
> > Are you looking for an alternative keyboard layout
> > or a retunable synthesizer? What qualifies as
> > "cheap"?
>
> I am looking for at the bare minimum, a retunable
> synthesizer... If there was some way I could pop
> off/add keys as I desired, that would be a bonus, but
> that may or may not exist... Cheap means under $1000 I
> guess... Or if that's impossible, the cheapest ones
> out there... Thanks again for your time,
>
> Brian Szymanski
> bks10@c...

For half that, you should be able to obtain a used Ensoniq with full
retuning capabilities. To see retuning capabilities of all synths,
look here:

http://home.att.net/~microtonal/