Topic: Questions about Scala
1 scales
| File | Description | Notes | Period (ยข) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15-27 | 15 out of 27-ET | 15 | 1200.0 |
Thread (13 messages)
From: Joseph Pehrson (2000-01-23) Subject: 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
From: [email protected] (2001-09-13) Subject: Questions about Scala 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
From: Paul Erlich (2001-09-13) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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.
From: [email protected] (2001-09-14) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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?
From: [email protected] (2001-09-14) Subject: Re: [tuning] Questions about Scala 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
From: Paul Erlich (2001-09-14) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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 . . .
From: [email protected] (2001-09-14) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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.
From: [email protected] (2001-09-17) Subject: Re: [tuning] Re: Questions about Scala 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
From: [email protected] (2001-09-18) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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!
From: [email protected] (2001-09-18) Subject: Re: [tuning] Re: Questions about Scala >"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
From: [email protected] (2001-09-18) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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.
From: [email protected] (2001-09-19) Subject: Re: [tuning] Re: Questions about Scala >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
From: Paul Erlich (2001-09-20) Subject: Re: Questions about Scala --- 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?