Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning QWERTY keyboard for music

> [Darren Burgess, TD 491.11]
> Is it possible to write a Cakewalk CAL program
> that would map QWERTY keyboard entry to MIDI notes?

Darren,

I don't have any info for you on doing this with CAL,
but you might be interested in this:

My JustMusic software is not yet ready for release,
but the latest version of it that Ken Fasano and I
have developed does allow you to map pitches (or
entire chords or melody lines) to individual QWERTY
keys, and then to play stuff on the QWERTY keyboard
and record what's being played into a MIDI-file.

The software is in the midst of being completely
re-designed - probably the main difference is that
we're going to emphasize Csound compatability before
we fully implement MIDI capability. But the QWERTY-MIDI
recorder does work in this version: I used it back in
May to assist in the composition of my AFMM Microthon
piece _A Noiseless Patient Spider_. I'd be happy
to let you be a sort of 'beta-tester' if you'd like
to try it. Email me privately.

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
--------------------------------------------------

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In my last post, I wrote:

> My JustMusic software is not yet ready for release,
> but the latest version of it that Ken Fasano and I
> have developed does allow you to map pitches (or
> entire chords or melody lines) to individual QWERTY
> keys, and then to play stuff on the QWERTY keyboard
> and record what's being played into a MIDI-file.

I failed to mention that those pitches that are mapped
to the QWERTY keyboard are designated by ratios, and
thus can be any rational tuning the user wants.

I've mapped Partch's 43-tone scale to the QWERTY keyboard,
and find that it is an excellent way to become familiar
with Partch's scale. It fits nicely onto all the letter
and number keys, including those for the usual punctuation
marks, and I use the | \ key for 2/1, making 44 notes in all.

JustMusic will also allow the user to map pitches to 10
of the 'function keys' at the top of the keyboard, as
well as the ~ `, _ -, and + = keys, giving a total of 57
available QWERTY keys. Of course, these can be *any*
57 pitches, including 'octave' doublings of others already
mapped.

With JustMusic, it's very easy to create a 1-pitch-per-key
mapping as follows: open a Lattice file, then open the
Keyboard window, and in key-edit mode, simply type a
QWERTY key to open the key-editor window, then click the
mouse on the desired lattice-point in the Lattice window
to map that ratio onto the QWERTY key.

The only drawback to using the QWERTY keyboard is that it
is strictly monophonic, i.e., it can only play one QWERTY
key at a time. This is really not a problem if your
intended use is to record one track of a MIDI sequence,
but it is a serious limitation for real-time use. That's
why Ken Fasano gave JustMusic the ability to map entire
chords and melodies to single QWERTY keys, but it's still
not the same as *real* real-time polyphony. Does anyone
know how to get around this and make QWERTY polyphonic?

I had also intended, awhile back, to mention my software
in regard to Jon Szanto's question about 'instruments'
which make the theory plainly visible. When JustMusic
is ready for release, I intend for it to encompass all
of my theoretical and notational ideas in a very obivous
way.

(Don't get angry, Jon, but Ken and I also intend to include
virtual Partch instruments...
yikes! here comes another brick!...)

-monz

QWERTY keyboard for music

🔗Joe Monzo <monz@juno.com>

🔗Joe Monzo <monz@juno.com>