Re: [tuning] Getting Started in Microtonality

First of all, you might want to start with John Loffink's MIDI-instrument web pages, to see which ones have that ability. It's at: http://home.att.net/~microtonal/

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Well, that certainly nipped my idea in the bud. Turns out my current keyboard (Alesis QS8) isn't on the list. I guess I'm going to have to sink some more money into this before I can start experimenting.

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Well, it's really not all that difficult to refret a guitar yourself, as long as you have a typical handyman-like skill and have a Luthier's Merchantile catalog (800) 477-4437), and know how to perform a few pretty simple calculations. I suggest you start with a cheapie guitar that you can "throw away" (more likely figuratively speaking than literally) as a first-try learning experience. That is, if you're into $1000 guitars, I suggest doing a cheaper one first.

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Ok, this makes sense to me, and I'm always willing to try something new. Here's a question though. Even on quite nice, carefully set up guitars that I might play, I occasionally fine one, or several frets that aren't positioned quite right and the intonation just makes me cringe. Cheap guitars are even worse. So if people who do this professionally can't get it right, what are the chances that I'm going to get anywhere close?

At 09:21 AM 4/15/00 -0700, you wrote:
> http://home.att.net/~microtonal/
> >>> I guess I'm going to have to sink some more money into this
>before I can start experimenting. <<<

That's what I thought as well when I first joined this list a couple of
months ago. Daniel Wolf was kind enough to mention Polyhedric Software at
http://www.polyhedric.com/software/index.html. They offer synthesis,
audio-editing, sample-playback, and related shareware. Since I already
have a PC with a decent soundcard, this seemed like a nice, low-cost
solution to me. I have also just become aware today (while looking for a
metronome app for my Palm Pilot after my "real" metronome broke down) that
there are some brave souls out there working on music stuff for that
device. Nothing specificially microtonal yet as far as I can tell, other
than a realtime Theremin app, but I'll keep watching that scene to see what
folks come up with.

I also took up a very microtone-friendly instrument (the cello), although I
had other, more important reasons for _that_ endeavor.

Paolo