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What Are You Playing Right Now?

PostPosted: Sat, 03 May 2014, 15:36
by musicalconspirator
Hey everyone,

I was just wondering...what instruments are you playing on/building/creating right now? I am playing...

a conventional 88key MIDI controller that's hooked up to EXS24 instruments that have been retuned to just intonation using by adjusting the 'fine tuning' parameter of each sample in the EXS24 sampler editor, inside of Logic Pro 8

microtonal violin

And figuring out...

Re-retuning a piano with the front half (action, keybed) chopped off. It was tuned to 29-EDO, but then I moved twice, and now it's just out of tune. It's a good opportunity to start from scratch with it.

Figuring out a low-latency polyphonic re-tuning script through Kontakt Script Language. I've made working ones, but they don't use the computers' resources well and cause it to crash pretty often.

Defretting a cheaply made classical guitar that I found at a thrift store.

Sysex tuning dumps for a Proteus 2 XR

Re: What Are You Playing Right Now?

PostPosted: Wed, 04 Jun 2014, 09:16
by Cam
Axis49 with Pianoteq. I've been using the Bonsanquet layout for a long time so getting very familiar with it in both meantone and schismatic tunings. But, it only works with tunings which are built from a single chain of fifths (need alternative layouts for 24, 34, 72EDOs, etc, and I'm not that keen to learn multiple layouts unless they're about as general as the Bosanquet is)

Keen to go down the guitar path too, but I'm not really a guitarist at all. Once I get something flexible and cheap, then I might start practicing :)

Re: What Are You Playing Right Now?

PostPosted: Wed, 18 Jun 2014, 21:35
by Dolores
I am working with the Tonal Plexus Midi controller. This instrument has 206 button type keys per octave. Also using H-pi's custom scale editor on an mac for microtuning configurations.

Also, I have worked with the 4 octave microzone (60 hex keys per octave). From my perspective, the rightward vertical key slant ergonomically potentiates symmetries of the left hand much more than the right.

The TPX design implementation allows me to handle an aural resolution of 106 pitches per octave technically. The drawback is the hollow button tactile feel.

Very excited about exploring the 3-D cascade key design on the Terpstra.

For me, the technical/ergonomic approach of these types of microtonal instruments resembles the 2D guitar approach more than a one dimensional, linear piano technique.

Re: What Are You Playing Right Now?

PostPosted: Sun, 27 Jul 2014, 06:46
by musicalconspirator
Dolores, I am glad to see you posting on this forum... I am in fact one of your youtube subscribers, and I can't remember how I found your piece "Towards the Continuum" which you did on the Tonal Plexus, but it really moved me. In fact, I am inclined to plug one of your videos because it is the only one I have found so far about technique on microtonal keyboards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzBfpFE ... Z-xRX65NTw

(please correct me if there are more)

Cam, how do you like your Axis49? I almost bought one 3 years ago...

Re: What Are You Playing Right Now?

PostPosted: Mon, 18 Aug 2014, 06:38
by Cam
The Axis has been the best cheap thing to tide me over for the Terpstra, practice the layout, experiment with a WHOLE lot of tunings, not limited to twelve notes or anything like that, and obviously isomorphically. It's a great experimentation tool, which I haven't seen the like of for that kind of price. Once you get your Terpstra obviously you won't really need one per se, but it's been very useful to see how brilliant tunings like 31, 41, 43, 46, 50 and 53EDOs are, the possibilities they entail and their playability, not much more difficult than any 12 tone tuning. I always wanted to play with at least 19 tones on a specialised keyboard, and you just can't really do that on a halberstadt, no matter how you map it.

It's gonna be so great moving from a ~2 octave small keys range to ~4 [totally dependant on how you map it and how big your scale set is, could be much less or much more] of decent sized, fully sensitive ones with proper travel though. The Axis is definitely a little limited in terms of size and expressiveness, so it'll be good to finally have a performance instrument.

All in all, you wouldn't have been disappointed if you bought an Axis, but now you very well may be. The Terpstra is gonna kick its ass.

Also, Dolores, I too watched those videos a few years back and way rather inspired, when I was first peaking into microtonality. I hope you make some videos with the Terpstra keyboard too!