Availability of Generalized Keyboards

Hello all,

With all the talk about "generized" keyboards, I was curious about checking one out. The only such thing that I have found so far was "The Wilson Uath-108 (MicroZone)". It runs for around $8800, this is info from the Starrlab site (http://catalog.com/starrlab/). That is kind of steap. I do understand that each one is pretty much custom made, but I con't really justify that much money at the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions for such beasts? I am in the Chicago area, and would be intersted in checking out such an instrument. I do understand that these things may only be a MIDI controller, and will not produce sound by themselves, I have other synths that I can use.

I am currently experimenting with Partch's 43-tone scale on one of my synths, and trying to map that many notes to a 60-key controller doesn't cut it.

Thanks,

Mike

hi Michael,

> From: "Michael J McGonagle" <fndsnd@rcnchicago.com>
> To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 8:59 PM
> Subject: [tuning] Availability of Generalized Keyboards
>
>
> Hello all,
>
> With all the talk about "generized" keyboards, I was curious about
> checking one out. The only such thing that I have found so far was "The
> Wilson Uath-108 (MicroZone)". It runs for around $8800, this is info
> from the Starrlab site (http://catalog.com/starrlab/). That is kind of
> steap. I do understand that each one is pretty much custom made, but I
> con't really justify that much money at the time.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for such beasts? I am in the Chicago
> area, and would be intersted in checking out such an instrument. I do
> understand that these things may only be a MIDI controller, and will not
> produce sound by themselves, I have other synths that I can use.
>
> I am currently experimenting with Partch's 43-tone scale on one of my
> synths, and trying to map that many notes to a 60-key controller doesn't
> cut it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike

i've been suggesting for a over a year that the StarrLabs "Z-tar"
(which comes in several different models) would make an excellent
and much more affordable choice for those wanting to explore microtonal
keyboard mappings. i'm finally ready to take the plunge and give
Harvey the cash to start building my mini-Z.

the Ztar gives excellent mappings for several different tunings
from the MIRACLE family of temperaments, including 31, 41, and 72.

for exploring Partch's scale on the Ztar, i suggest any of the
following approximations:

* Partch's actual 43-tone JI scale

* the 41-tone JI periodicity-block which leaves out two of
Partch's ratios

* the 41-tone MIRACLE subset of 72edo which we dubbed "StudLoco"

* 41edo.

all of these would map nicely to the Ztar, one 8ve of Partch's scale
requiring 8 Ztar "frets" and thus giving a total range of 3 8ves,
and the 41-tone sets each requiring 7 "frets" for 1 8ve giving
a total range of about 3&1/3 8ves.

below is my suggested mapping of the 41-tone scales to the Ztar
fingerboard. the top line gives the "fret" number, and the numbers
in the body of the diagram are the degrees of the scale. "x" indicates
a fret that can be given a different colored key-top, to help in
identifying the 8ve replication.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

2 8 14 20 26 32 38 2 8 14 20 26 32 38 2 8 14 20 26 32 38 2 8 14
1 7 13 19 25 31 37 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 1 7 13
0 6 12 18 24 30 36 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 0 6 12
x 5 11 17 23 29 35 x 5 11 17 23 29 35 x 5 11 17 23 29 35 x 5 11
40 4 10 16 22 28 34 40 4 10 16 22 28 34 40 4 10 16 22 28 34 40 4 10
39 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 3 9

(if viewing this on the Yahoo website, click on "Message Index" and
then "Expand Messages" to view it with the correct spacing.)

there was a huge amount of discussion regarding all aspects of
MIRACLE temperament in the months following its rediscovery on
this list in the Spring of 2001, including the subject of mapping
it to keyboards. Dave Keenan and Graham Breed in particular wrote
a lot of posts about that. search the archives of both this list
and the one devoted to MIRACLE.

REFERENCES:

/miracle_tuning/
/tuning/files/dict/studloco.htm
/tuning/files/dict/miracle.htm
/tuning/files/td/erlich/partchpblock.htm

In-Reply-To: <002301c270f2$f1e04ac0$af48620c@dsl.att.net>
monz wrote:

> below is my suggested mapping of the 41-tone scales to the Ztar
> fingerboard. the top line gives the "fret" number, and the numbers
> in the body of the diagram are the degrees of the scale. "x" indicates
> a fret that can be given a different colored key-top, to help in
> identifying the 8ve replication.

There's also George Secor's keyboard mapping from the "Xenharmonikon 3"
paper at <http://www.anaphoria.com/wilson2.html>. You get two and a bit
octaves in a ZTar, with a few notes missing that you can add as duplicates
from 41-equal. The advantage over Wilson's schismic mapping for a
hexagonal array is that you don't need any split keys or temperament.

I've got a ZTar, and tried a tempered version of this mapping on it. It
was very easy to follow my decimal notation, although it's not very
guitar-like (because the strings are tuned so close together) so I don't
know how it'd work with virtuoso playing. I prefer mappings based on the
strings tuned in neutral thirds for now. I don't know if you can get
Partch43 to work like that.

Graham