Looking for tuning application

Hi,

I don't know if Scala has this option, but I don't think I've ever seen it:

Is there an application, for the PC platform, that would let me access in realtime, through an on-screen interface, the pitch values of all 128 midi notes? Going ALL the way back to my original Prophet 5, I would frequently try out scales by retuning the 12 notes (that is all you could do) of the octave, getting varying amounts of consonant and dissonant chords, simply by turning 12 knobs.

The may not be the optimal way to find tunings, it may not be the preferred way, or anything else. But since I can use Scala to explore a lot of other things, I would sometimes like to just sit down and practice/experiment tuning harmonies by ear.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Jon

on 12/28/03 11:12 AM, Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@ADNC.COM> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I don't know if Scala has this option, but I don't think I've ever seen it:
>
> Is there an application, for the PC platform, that would let me access in
> realtime, through an on-screen interface, the pitch values of all 128 midi
> notes? Going ALL the way back to my original Prophet 5, I would frequently
> try out scales by retuning the 12 notes (that is all you could do) of the
> octave, getting varying amounts of consonant and dissonant chords, simply
> by turning 12 knobs.
>
> The may not be the optimal way to find tunings, it may not be the preferred
> way, or anything else. But since I can use Scala to explore a lot of other
> things, I would sometimes like to just sit down and practice/experiment
> tuning harmonies by ear.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

It wouldn't be too hard to write a MIDI filter to do something like this.

I will probably do something so close to this within the next year that to
add this to it would be almost trivial. However it probably would not
initially be for the PC platform, but plans are to make it easily portable.

But it is an interesting suggestion for scala to be enhanced to allow MIDI
knob inputs to set a series of pitches in the way you describe.

On the other hand, if you have a synth that allows individual notes to be
tunes with individual messages, you could just program a generalized
controller such as a PEAVEY PC1600 to send out the requisite messages. But
I don't yet know the details of how current synths that allow a single
octave to be tuned (and automatically repeated) accomplish this, i.e.
whether a message for tuning an individual note as opposed to the whole
octave at once.

I think this is a great idea.

I have been thinking about having a single control that squeezes or
stretches the intervals near a certain part of the octave, and another
control that changes what part of the octave is the center of the
squeeze/stretch. Your idea is the ultimate generalization of that kind of
flexibility. But there are many other variations such as setting generators
dynamically that might also be valuable and simpler to tweak while in the
middle of playing.

-Kurt