source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 13:41:33 -0800 Subject: alternate tuning for the Korg O5R/W From: Matt Nathan > malkin@iwaynet.net (David Malkin) wrote: > Subject: alternate tuning for the Korg O5R/W > > I've got a very specific question that only someone familiar with > microtonality would understand (and hopefully appreciate). I have a Korg > O5R/W syth module that hooks into an old DW-6000 synth. The O5R/W allows > for microtonality, but it only allows you to alter the 12 chromatic steps > of Western harmony (and automatically tunes every octave of the keyboard to > the specs that one specifies). If you want to tune a synth keyboard for > more than 12 steps you are out of luck. I read a book by Scott R. Wilkinson > called TUNING IN. He made reference to an article by Carter Scholz that > appeared in 2/86 copy of KEYBOARD magazine; page 49. He showed how one get > any keyboard to play in microtones by writing a program in Pascal and > having it interface with a Roland MPU@1 and a Yamaha DX7. The computer > waits in an infinite loop in a standby mode and whenever one presses a key > on the keyboard, it triggers the correct pitch bend midi data that is > written in the program. Is this possible with my Korg O5R/W? Do you know > of anyone who may be of help. I don't know about the Korg 05R/W, or the Korg DW-6000, but I do know about the midi specs and the Yamaha DX7. The original Yamaha DX7 played on one midi channel at a time. Pitch bend is a channel message, which means it affects all notes sounding on the channel at once. This means that the original DX7 can only play monophonic microtonality using the pitch bend technique. If you use a midi module capable of playing on multiple midi channels at once, rather than the DX7, you can play polyphonic microtonality by sending each note and its associated pitch bend to a separate channel. The second generation Yamaha DX7-II of course does microtonality without pitch bend, with each of the 128 midi notes being independantly tunable across the same wide range (IOW, the pitches don't have to be ordered low to high). Matt Nathan Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 17 Dec 1996 23:15 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA00740; Tue, 17 Dec 1996 23:18:09 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA00738 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id OAA23806; Tue, 17 Dec 1996 14:18:00 -0800 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 14:18:00 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu