Relayer - for AXiS players and QWERTY warriors

Hi all

I've posted an app called Relayer that allow players of the AXiS 49 (in selfless mode), the QWERTY keyboard, or the Thummer, to play in a wide variety of isomorphic note layouts and tunings.

In Relayer, you can choose an MOS scale and tuning (as a preset), and Relayer will automatically:

1) Provide an isomorphic note layout with adjacent seconds, though any alternative isomorphic layout can be chosen instead. (An adjacent seconds layout can be thought of as a generalization of the Wicki/Hayden layout used for the diatonic/pentatonic scales: given any MOS, the most numerous seconds run along rows, the less numerous seconds are reached with a "carriage return" move to the the next higher row; octaves (periods) are horizontally aligned (as much as possible); the pitch axis is vertical (as much as possible).

2) Retune a multi-timbral synth (like the built-in Windows and Mac soundfont synths) using pitch bend or, if connected to Dynamic Tonality synth like 2032, it will automatically set the tuning to the right value.

3) Allow the note layout, independently for each of two input devices, to be reflected left-right and up-down, and transposed by periods and generators.

Most layouts are illustrated in a graphic to show the period and generator vectors, the pitch axis, and the scale degrees. But only for the unreflected layouts.

Presets can be saved as a text file. In Mac OS, go to the app, right click and Show Package Contents, go to contents folder, and edit the file called TemperamentPresets. In Windows, go into Relayer folder then the support folder, and edit TemperamentPresets.txt). The first item on each line is the preset name followed by a comma then comes the period and generator tunings (cents) then the number of large and small steps in the MOS followed by a semicolon. If you want a space in the preset name use "\ ".

Relayer can also accept MIDI from the microtonal MIDI sequencer Hex, so Hex can now be used to control non-DT multi-timbral synths that correctly handle pitch bend (e.g., built-in Mac and Windows soundfont synths, Virsyn Tera, etc.).

I hope the app is understandable (I haven't yet written a help file). If anything is not obvious please ask by posting to this list.

The concept of Relayer is to facilitate the writing and playing of unfamiliar tunings. It's certainly helped me! - here's a piece written and played with Relayer's help (15-TET Hanson)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDJPD20WEJM

The app was written in Max/MSP and, as far as I'm concerned, is open source. If anyone wants to play around with its innards, let me know and I'll post the "source" patch.

It can be downloaded from here

http://www.dynamictonality.com/

Have fun...

Andy Milne

Sorry for the delayed response Andy, this is amazing! This is exactly
what I needed. Do you have any idea how to interface this with
something like Pianoteq? Perhaps by using something like MIDIOX?

-Mike

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 5:53 AM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi all
>
> I've posted an app called Relayer that allow players of the AXiS 49 (in selfless mode), the QWERTY keyboard, or the Thummer, to play in a wide variety of isomorphic note layouts and tunings.
>
> In Relayer, you can choose an MOS scale and tuning (as a preset), and Relayer will automatically:
>
> 1) Provide an isomorphic note layout with adjacent seconds, though any alternative isomorphic layout can be chosen instead. (An adjacent seconds layout can be thought of as a generalization of the Wicki/Hayden layout used for the diatonic/pentatonic scales: given any MOS, the most numerous seconds run along rows, the less numerous seconds are reached with a "carriage return" move to the the next higher row; octaves (periods) are horizontally aligned (as much as possible); the pitch axis is vertical (as much as possible).
>
> 2) Retune a multi-timbral synth (like the built-in Windows and Mac soundfont synths) using pitch bend or, if connected to Dynamic Tonality synth like 2032, it will automatically set the tuning to the right value.
>
> 3) Allow the note layout, independently for each of two input devices, to be reflected left-right and up-down, and transposed by periods and generators.
>
> Most layouts are illustrated in a graphic to show the period and generator vectors, the pitch axis, and the scale degrees. But only for the unreflected layouts.
>
> Presets can be saved as a text file. In Mac OS, go to the app, right click and Show Package Contents, go to contents folder, and edit the file called TemperamentPresets. In Windows, go into Relayer folder then the support folder, and edit TemperamentPresets.txt). The first item on each line is the preset name followed by a comma then comes the period and generator tunings (cents) then the number of large and small steps in the MOS followed by a semicolon. If you want a space in the preset name use "\ ".
>
> Relayer can also accept MIDI from the microtonal MIDI sequencer Hex, so Hex can now be used to control non-DT multi-timbral synths that correctly handle pitch bend (e.g., built-in Mac and Windows soundfont synths, Virsyn Tera, etc.).
>
> I hope the app is understandable (I haven't yet written a help file). If anything is not obvious please ask by posting to this list.
>
> The concept of Relayer is to facilitate the writing and playing of unfamiliar tunings. It's certainly helped me! - here's a piece written and played with Relayer's help (15-TET Hanson)...
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDJPD20WEJM
>
> The app was written in Max/MSP and, as far as I'm concerned, is open source. If anyone wants to play around with its innards, let me know and I'll post the "source" patch.
>
> It can be downloaded from here
>
> http://www.dynamictonality.com/
>
> Have fun...
>
> Andy Milne

Hi Mike

I don't have Pianoteq, and I couldn't find any details about their implementation of microtuning on their website. I see it reads scala files; does it also respond to channel pitch bends? How do you currently control its tuning?

Andy

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Mike Battaglia <battaglia01@...> wrote:
>
> Sorry for the delayed response Andy, this is amazing! This is exactly
> what I needed. Do you have any idea how to interface this with
> something like Pianoteq? Perhaps by using something like MIDIOX?
>
> -Mike
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 5:53 AM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > I've posted an app called Relayer that allow players of the AXiS 49 (in selfless mode), the QWERTY keyboard, or the Thummer, to play in a wide variety of isomorphic note layouts and tunings.
> >
> > In Relayer, you can choose an MOS scale and tuning (as a preset), and Relayer will automatically:
> >
> > 1) Provide an isomorphic note layout with adjacent seconds, though any alternative isomorphic layout can be chosen instead. (An adjacent seconds layout can be thought of as a generalization of the Wicki/Hayden layout used for the diatonic/pentatonic scales: given any MOS, the most numerous seconds run along rows, the less numerous seconds are reached with a "carriage return" move to the the next higher row; octaves (periods) are horizontally aligned (as much as possible); the pitch axis is vertical (as much as possible).
> >
> > 2) Retune a multi-timbral synth (like the built-in Windows and Mac soundfont synths) using pitch bend or, if connected to Dynamic Tonality synth like 2032, it will automatically set the tuning to the right value.
> >
> > 3) Allow the note layout, independently for each of two input devices, to be reflected left-right and up-down, and transposed by periods and generators.
> >
> > Most layouts are illustrated in a graphic to show the period and generator vectors, the pitch axis, and the scale degrees. But only for the unreflected layouts.
> >
> > Presets can be saved as a text file. In Mac OS, go to the app, right click and Show Package Contents, go to contents folder, and edit the file called TemperamentPresets. In Windows, go into Relayer folder then the support folder, and edit TemperamentPresets.txt). The first item on each line is the preset name followed by a comma then comes the period and generator tunings (cents) then the number of large and small steps in the MOS followed by a semicolon. If you want a space in the preset name use "\ ".
> >
> > Relayer can also accept MIDI from the microtonal MIDI sequencer Hex, so Hex can now be used to control non-DT multi-timbral synths that correctly handle pitch bend (e.g., built-in Mac and Windows soundfont synths, Virsyn Tera, etc.).
> >
> > I hope the app is understandable (I haven't yet written a help file). If anything is not obvious please ask by posting to this list.
> >
> > The concept of Relayer is to facilitate the writing and playing of unfamiliar tunings. It's certainly helped me! - here's a piece written and played with Relayer's help (15-TET Hanson)...
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDJPD20WEJM
> >
> > The app was written in Max/MSP and, as far as I'm concerned, is open source. If anyone wants to play around with its innards, let me know and I'll post the "source" patch.
> >
> > It can be downloaded from here
> >
> > http://www.dynamictonality.com/
> >
> > Have fun...
> >
> > Andy Milne
>

ok! This is great!!!

On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 5:53 AM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...>wrote:

>
>
> Hi all
>
> I've posted an app called Relayer that allow players of the AXiS 49 (in
> selfless mode), the QWERTY keyboard, or the Thummer, to play in a wide
> variety of isomorphic note layouts and tunings.
>
>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDJPD20WEJM
>
> The app was written in Max/MSP and, as far as I'm concerned, is open
> source. If anyone wants to play around with its innards, let me know and
> I'll post the "source" patch.
>
> It can be downloaded from here
>
> http://www.dynamictonality.com/
>
> Have fun...
>
> Andy Milne
>
>
>

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 6:00 AM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Mike
>
> I don't have Pianoteq, and I couldn't find any details about their implementation of microtuning on their website. I see it reads scala files; does it also respond to channel pitch bends? How do you currently control its tuning?

Hi Andy,

It does respond to pitch bends. I installed "MIDI-YOKE" from
http://www.midiox.com/, which acts as a MIDI "patch bay." So I just
have Relayer going out to MIDI-Yoke #1, and then I have Pianoteq
accept MIDI-Yoke #1 as input.

My main problem right now is that I can't get a setup such that there
isn't extreme latency on everything I do, which makes using the AXiS
impossible. But I'll figure it out sooner or later...

-Mike

> It does respond to pitch bends. I installed "MIDI-YOKE" from
> http://www.midiox.com/, which acts as a MIDI "patch bay." So I just
> have Relayer going out to MIDI-Yoke #1, and then I have Pianoteq
> accept MIDI-Yoke #1 as input.
>
> My main problem right now is that I can't get a setup such that there
> isn't extreme latency on everything I do, which makes using the AXiS
> impossible. But I'll figure it out sooner or later...
>
> -Mike
>

Yeah, I should have said - to route MIDI from Relayer to most soft synths, you need to take the following steps:

In Windows: Install MIDI Yoke and enable at least 1 MIDI port. If you have any problems installing MIDIYoke, see here
http://www.midiox.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=MYInstall;action=display;num=1168918461

In Mac OS X: Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup. Make sure the MIDI Studio window is showing. Double-click on "IAC Driver" and click the "+" next to "Add and Remove Ports" to add one port, and tick the "Device is online" box.

I assume the latency isn't caused by Relayer - I know it works fine in Mac OS, but haven't tested it thoroughly on Windows - let me know if you can't solve the latency prob.

Andy

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 6:10 PM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...> wrote:
>
> Yeah, I should have said - to route MIDI from Relayer to most soft synths, you need to take the following steps:
>
> In Windows: Install MIDI Yoke and enable at least 1 MIDI port. If you have any problems installing MIDIYoke, see here
> http://www.midiox.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=MYInstall;action=display;num=1168918461
>
> In Mac OS X: Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup. Make sure the MIDI Studio window is showing. Double-click on "IAC Driver" and click the "+" next to "Add and Remove Ports" to add one port, and tick the "Device is online" box.
>
> I assume the latency isn't caused by Relayer - I know it works fine in Mac OS, but haven't tested it thoroughly on Windows - let me know if you can't solve the latency prob.

I guess I just need a better synth. Can you recommend one?

-Mike

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Mike Battaglia <battaglia01@...> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 6:10 PM, andymilneuk <ANDYMILNE@...> wrote:
> >
> > Yeah, I should have said - to route MIDI from Relayer to most soft synths, you need to take the following steps:
> >
> > In Windows: Install MIDI Yoke and enable at least 1 MIDI port. If you have any problems installing MIDIYoke, see here
> > http://www.midiox.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=MYInstall;action=display;num=1168918461
> >
> > In Mac OS X: Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Audio MIDI Setup. Make sure the MIDI Studio window is showing. Double-click on "IAC Driver" and click the "+" next to "Add and Remove Ports" to add one port, and tick the "Device is online" box.
> >
> > I assume the latency isn't caused by Relayer - I know it works fine in Mac OS, but haven't tested it thoroughly on Windows - let me know if you can't solve the latency prob.
>
> I guess I just need a better synth. Can you recommend one?
>
> -Mike
>

I doubt the latency problem is anything to do with the synth. Do you get latency when not using Relayer?

I don't know many synths that do the channel pitch bend thing correctly - Virsyn Tera does, and is a nice flexible synth.

Andy