Scala on MacBook

Hi all,

Apologies if this is not an appropriate place to ask basic tech questions
regarding Scala. If not, i'd be very grateful if youu could point
me in the direction of someone who could help.

I'm practising singing various just tunings over a drone and am looking
for an electronic alternative to tuning my guitar in weird ways to find
the notes I want (third, fifth and seventh partials and their simple
compounds). At some point, I may play with incorporating these tunings
into my music and would like the option of experimenting with these
electonically.

I've just installed scala on my new MacBook running OSX Leopard. For now
at least, I'd like to use it with the Mac internal soundcard (I don't have
any external midi devices at the moment). Is there some simple way to set
scala to talk to my soundcard so that I can use the 'Play' option to
generate the notes I want? Could this be done simply by specifying the
right path for MIDI player?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,

David Osumi-Sutherland

London, UK

I don't have any answers but will follow this discussion with real interest.

Getting Scala working on my Mac seemed mysterious on my first try, but I'd love to be able to use it.

caleb

On Jan 18, 2009, at 7:47 AM, David Sutherland wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Apologies if this is not an appropriate place to ask basic tech > questions
> regarding Scala. If not, i'd be very grateful if youu could point
> me in the direction of someone who could help.
>
> I'm practising singing various just tunings over a drone and am > looking
> for an electronic alternative to tuning my guitar in weird ways to > find
> the notes I want (third, fifth and seventh partials and their simple
> compounds). At some point, I may play with incorporating these tunings
> into my music and would like the option of experimenting with these
> electonically.
>
> I've just installed scala on my new MacBook running OSX Leopard. For > now
> at least, I'd like to use it with the Mac internal soundcard (I > don't have
> any external midi devices at the moment). Is there some simple way > to set
> scala to talk to my soundcard so that I can use the 'Play' option to
> generate the notes I want? Could this be done simply by specifying the
> right path for MIDI player?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
>
> David Osumi-Sutherland
>
> London, UK
>
>
>

have you installed X11?
check this out:
http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/X11.html

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009, Carlo Serafini wrote:

Hi Carlo,

Thanks for the quick response.

> have you installed X11?

Yes. I'm already using it to run a bunch of apps.

Scala seems to be running OK, but I want to be able to use it to drive
tone generation directly.

Having read around a bit, I'm wondering whether I should be using scala to
specify tunings for a software synth running on the mac instead. Can
anyone suggest an open source software synth I could use?

Thanks again,

David
> check this out:
> http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/X11.html
>
>
>
>

Hi David you might try using the microtuning capabilities which are provided with Logic on your Mac.

see this page for codes etc.

http://www.lucytune.com/midi_and_keyboard/pitch_bend.html

The values are entered as + or - cents (to nearest 1/10th cent) for each of the twelve notes from 12edo.

On 18 Jan 2009, at 23:45, David Sutherland wrote:

> On Sun, 18 Jan 2009, Carlo Serafini wrote:
>
> Hi Carlo,
>
> Thanks for the quick response.
>
> > have you installed X11?
>
> Yes. I'm already using it to run a bunch of apps.
>
> Scala seems to be running OK, but I want to be able to use it to drive
> tone generation directly.
>
> Having read around a bit, I'm wondering whether I should be using > scala to
> specify tunings for a software synth running on the mac instead. Can
> anyone suggest an open source software synth I could use?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> David
> > check this out:
> > http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/X11.html
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
Charles Lucy
lucy@...

- Promoting global harmony through LucyTuning -

for information on LucyTuning go to:
http://www.lucytune.com

For LucyTuned Lullabies go to:
http://www.lullabies.co.uk

Hi David,
There's no especially easy way to do this. What I use when I want to
use Scala with the builtin DLS synth is a program called MidiPipe,
which I set up with just a MIDI IN going to the DLS synth. It's a
little annoying how hard it is to find timbres with the builtin sounds
that do not have vibrato. I mostly use the reed organ.

It's unfortunate that Scala is so hard to get running on a new mac
(running leopard on intel). I've had brief exchanges with Manuel about
this, and it's apparently because the Mac port maintainer is no longer
working on the project. That was the impression I got anyways, correct
me if I'm wrong. Scala also crashes fairly regularly, and immediately
on some functions (such as the ratio pitch calculator). Oh well, it
still gets the job done, and it's a great tool. I wish I had the
knowledge to try to tackle the Mac port myself.

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:47 AM, David Sutherland <djs93@...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Apologies if this is not an appropriate place to ask basic tech questions
> regarding Scala. If not, i'd be very grateful if youu could point
> me in the direction of someone who could help.
>
> I'm practising singing various just tunings over a drone and am looking
> for an electronic alternative to tuning my guitar in weird ways to find
> the notes I want (third, fifth and seventh partials and their simple
> compounds). At some point, I may play with incorporating these tunings
> into my music and would like the option of experimenting with these
> electonically.
>
> I've just installed scala on my new MacBook running OSX Leopard. For now
> at least, I'd like to use it with the Mac internal soundcard (I don't have
> any external midi devices at the moment). Is there some simple way to set
> scala to talk to my soundcard so that I can use the 'Play' option to
> generate the notes I want? Could this be done simply by specifying the
> right path for MIDI player?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
>
> David Osumi-Sutherland
>
> London, UK
>
>

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carlo Serafini" <carlo@...> wrote:
>
> have you installed X11?
> check this out:
> http://developer.apple.com/opensource/tools/X11.html
>
I thought that beat frequencies are defined as half the difference b/w
two frequencies, nothing to do with interference??

Rick