Questions about Scala

I've been running the Scala program and, of course, find it fascinating...
at least what I can understand of it at this point.

The problem is, although the screen output is great, I haven't been able to
HEAR anything -- it is not, at present, yet "talking" to my TX81Z...

I've set the synthesizer to the correct number and I start up "gsplay" by
typing @send. It DOES start up that midi playing program, and the screen
comes on (although not when I set the synthesizer for "full keyboard
mode.." only on "octave"..??) and SAYS it's sending sysex data someplace...

Anyway, I've checked to see that the TX81Z is set to "write protect off"
and on midi receive channel 1.

However, nothing changes with the TX81Z tunings...

I am using a Soundblaster Awe 64 as my midi interface. Perhaps that is the
problem (??) Basically, I went into the configuration file "gsplay.cfg"
and changed the parameter of "Midi Interface" to SB. Still nothing.

I decided that maybe I should install an old MPU401 card that I've had
sitting around to try that. However, a friend, my "computer guru" was so
aghast at that, he ripped it out again... so I guess I'll have to try to
continue working with the Soundblaster interface or find a more "modern"
version of the MPU401, which probably exists.

I should mention that I have to have a sequencer program "up and running"
in order to hear sounds from my midi keyboard (midi out only) going THRU
the Soundblaster (not playing it) to the TX81Z, so I was assuming that
maybe all the different "levels" of hardware and software involved with
this could create the impass...(??)

Is there some way to try to set the Soundblaster to receive data from
"gsplay" that I am not trying?? I'm not certain how to set it at all,
although probably I should print out a Soundblaster on-line manual...

This may take some "tweaking," but, naturally, I'm anxious to hear all the
different scales and possibilities of Scala... Thanks for any possible
help...

Joseph Pehrson

I have not been sucessful in getting Scala to retune a midi file to
the 3 or 4 et; since doing so requires no pitch bends that seems
peculiar. This may seem completely academic but in fact it could turn
out to be useful; retuning a score to the 3, 4 and 5 ets is something
I would find quite useful and interesting, and it's possible that
retuning a midi file and converting it to a score would help.

The second question concerns retuned octaves. I tried to tune an
octave to the Gram tuning of a 27-et scale, and it didn't seem to
work as intended. My .scl file read as follows:

! 15-27-gram.scl
!
15 out of 27-ET, Gram tuning
15
!
88.62863188
177.2572622
221.5715778
310.2002098
398.8288401
487.4574721
576.0861034
620.4004185
709.0290501
797.6576812
886.2863119
974.9149436
1019.229259
1107.857890
1.995945186/1

I presume the last line is the problem, but how could this be done?

Incidentally, this 15-out-of-27 scale is an example of something
which should be in the scale lists but isn't; perhaps I will post
more of these. Microtonal music is often harmonically static, there
are so many tones relating to one tonal center that people may not
shift to another one. A scale of 15 tones still sounds like a scale,
and the 27-et is well adapted to it and to 7-limit harmony. It is
also not a meantone system, but does employ the 8/7~9/8 approximation
(64/63~1) which is also quite useful. It is therefore quite different
than 7-out-of-12 yet still very much the same kind of thing.

The scale without any attempt at fiddling with octaves would be:

! 15-27.scl
!
15 out of 27-ET
15
!
88.8888889
177.777778
222.222222
311.111111
400.000000
488.888889
577.777778
622.222222
711.111111
800.000000
888.888889
977.777778
1022.22222
1111.11111
2/1

--- In tuning@y..., genewardsmith@j... wrote:
> I have not been sucessful in getting Scala to retune a midi file to
> the 3 or 4 et; since doing so requires no pitch bends that seems
> peculiar. This may seem completely academic but in fact it could
turn
> out to be useful; retuning a score to the 3, 4 and 5 ets is
something
> I would find quite useful and interesting, and it's possible that
> retuning a midi file and converting it to a score would help.
>
> The second question concerns retuned octaves. I tried to tune an
> octave to the Gram tuning of a 27-et scale, and it didn't seem to
> work as intended. My .scl file read as follows:
>
> ! 15-27-gram.scl
> !
> 15 out of 27-ET, Gram tuning
> 15
> !
> 88.62863188
> 177.2572622
> 221.5715778
> 310.2002098
> 398.8288401
> 487.4574721
> 576.0861034
> 620.4004185
> 709.0290501
> 797.6576812
> 886.2863119
> 974.9149436
> 1019.229259
> 1107.857890
> 1.995945186/1
>
> I presume the last line is the problem, but how could this be done?
>
> Incidentally, this 15-out-of-27 scale is an example of something
> which should be in the scale lists but isn't; perhaps I will post
> more of these. Microtonal music is often harmonically static, there
> are so many tones relating to one tonal center that people may not
> shift to another one. A scale of 15 tones still sounds like a
scale,
> and the 27-et is well adapted to it and to 7-limit harmony. It is
> also not a meantone system, but does employ the 8/7~9/8
approximation
> (64/63~1) which is also quite useful. It is therefore quite
different
> than 7-out-of-12 yet still very much the same kind of thing.
>
> The scale without any attempt at fiddling with octaves would be:
>
> ! 15-27.scl
> !
> 15 out of 27-ET
> 15
> !
> 88.8888889
> 177.777778
> 222.222222
> 311.111111
> 400.000000
> 488.888889
> 577.777778
> 622.222222
> 711.111111
> 800.000000
> 888.888889
> 977.777778
> 1022.22222
> 1111.11111
> 2/1

Thanks Gene. 15-out-of-27 is a good scale. It almost got mentioned in
my paper

http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/22ALL.pdf

but I pretty much restricted my attention to scales with 14 or fewer
notes. Read this paper -- I think you will like it -- page 20 is
completely erroneous so ignore it -- the appendix (last page) is also
very erroneous . . . the corrected version is somewhere in the Files
folder.

--- In tuning@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

> my paper
>
> http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/22ALL.pdf

I couldn't get this to download just now; is there somewhere I can
access it by ftp?

Gene,

>I have not been successful in getting Scala to retune a midi file to
>the 3 or 4 et; since doing so requires no pitch bends that seems
>peculiar.

I think you're assuming things about Scala retuning which aren't
true. There is no musical intelligence behind it, that needs to
come from you. It's completely static and makes no assumption
about the tuning of the input file. You may hear it as 12-note
music but the program doesn't know that. It just maps note number
60 to scale degree 0, note number 61 to scale degree 1, etc.
So if you naively use a 22-tET, or 53-tET scale of course it will
sound horrible. Likewise if you want 4-tET you need to decide first
which pitch classes to map to C, which to Eb, etc. This doesn't
happen automatically.

>1.995945186/1

>I presume the last line is the problem, but how could this be done?

Input the first 14 notes and then do APPEND/FACTOR 1.995945186 and
then SAVE the scale.

Manuel

--- In tuning@y..., genewardsmith@j... wrote:
> --- In tuning@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:
>
> > my paper
> >
> > http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~jstarret/22ALL.pdf
>
> I couldn't get this to download just now;

What was the problem?

is there somewhere I can
> access it by ftp?

Not really . . . I can e-mail you the latest Microsoft Word file, and
the figures separately, if you like . . .

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:

> >1.995945186/1
>
> >I presume the last line is the problem, but how could this be done?
>
> Input the first 14 notes and then do APPEND/FACTOR 1.995945186 and
> then SAVE the scale.

I did all that, and got a scale with the last number but no /1.
However, it has the same problem--it won't play any note outside of
the range of an octave.

Gene wrote:
>I did all that, and got a scale with the last number but no /1.
>However, it has the same problem--it won't play any note outside of
>the range of an octave.

I don't know what you mean, what is "it"?

Manuel

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:

> Gene wrote:
> >I did all that, and got a scale with the last number but no /1.
> >However, it has the same problem--it won't play any note outside of
> >the range of an octave.
>
> I don't know what you mean, what is "it"?

"It" is FTS, and this is probably a Tune Smithy problem. I hope
Robert is listening!

>"It" is FTS, and this is probably a Tune Smithy problem. I hope
>Robert is listening!

He's out of town, but I can answer. In the scale window,
(open by clicking the "Scale..." button in the "advanced" view)
increase the number of octaves with the "Width" spinbutton
and then click the "Expand" button. You can use the mouse
and number keys to play.

Manuel

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:

> He's out of town, but I can answer. In the scale window,
> (open by clicking the "Scale..." button in the "advanced" view)
> increase the number of octaves with the "Width" spinbutton
> and then click the "Expand" button. You can use the mouse
> and number keys to play.

That's not the problem. The problem is when I do this the notes
outside of the range of an octave won't play.

>That's not the problem. The problem is when I do this the notes
>outside of the range of an octave won't play.

Very odd, it works for me, and in all the versions that I used.

Manuel

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:
>
> >That's not the problem. The problem is when I do this the notes
> >outside of the range of an octave won't play.
>
> Very odd, it works for me, and in all the versions that I used.
>
> Manuel

Gene, have you tried using Graham's MIDI Relay, instead of FTS?