source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 12:21:33 -0800 Subject: emu & kurzwiel From: Gary Morrison <71670.2576@compuserve.com> > I'm looking into getting a sampler/synth unit and leaning towards the EMU 4X/64 > models or the Kurzweil 2000/2500 models. Does anyone know how microtuning > friendly they are? I don't personally own one, but I've heard been considerable discussion about the K2x00 on the list and from a friend who has one. Without a doubt, it doesn't have a generic tuning table capability by which each key of the keyboard may be retuned to any arbitrary pitch. (Most of the Ensoniq line does, by the way.) There are instead three separate mechanisms that you have to learn and apply separately. The going answer seems to be that these things are easy: 1. Tuning the interval between all adjacent keys equally to any multiple of 2 cents. All adjacent keys 2. Tuning the twelve notes of each C-C octave identically to just about anything. Switching off between several such tables with SysEx messages is also easy. These are strictly 12-tone tables though, and repeat only in exact octaves. 3. Using a Max patch to retune every note on the fly according to what might be called a "sample and hold" controller. (It memorizes the most-recently set value to ... I think it's something like controller #25 ... and you can then adjust a note's pitch based upon that. It's sort of like pitch bend except that it has no effect upon notes already playing) Doing #1 to a finer resolution is also possible, but much more difficult. That is what you'd want if you wanted, for example, to map 19-tone equal-temperament linearly, meaning note-for-note/key-for-key across the keyboard, mismatching octave boundaries of the tuning with octave boundaries on the keyboard. From what I've heard, I doubt if there's any way to tuning a K2x00 like Partch's Chromelodeon, which uses an irregular spacing between keys spanning across an octave of 43 keys. Or similarly, my mapping for 88CET tuning, wherein I use a linear, key-for-key/note-for-note mapping except that I omit the G#/Ab key from that setup. (Or to put it another way, the gap between all pairs of adjacent keys is 88 cents, except that G#/Ab key is tuned to the same pitch as its adjacent A key.) That mapping would probably not be possible on the K2x00, except through external computer assistance (#3 above). Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 29 Jan 1997 21:28 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA18957; Wed, 29 Jan 1997 21:28:38 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA18907 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id MAA23187; Wed, 29 Jan 1997 12:25:33 -0800 Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 12:25:33 -0800 Message-Id: <93970129171339/0005695065PK4EM@MCIMAIL.COM> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu