source file: mills3.txt Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 17:31:27 +0100 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 1293 jloffink From: "Fred Kohler" In TUNING digest 1293 John Loffink asked "Do you want octave based tables? Do you want keyboard based tables? (Remember, these are virtually impossible to retune note by note on the fly, ala Justonic Pitch Palette, because of the limited MIDI bandwidth) How many tables do you need? Are the tables assigned globally or per MIDI channel? Do you need to switch between tables or notes in realtime, and if so should notes be updated immediately or on new notes only? Is the MIDI Tuning Dump Standard supported?" I'm sure those that are exploring the non-octave based tunings such as Wendy Carlos' Alpha and 88CET would prefer at least having an option other than octave based tables. The fastest and easiest but most proprietary way of switching tunings is to have multiple "banks" resident in synth memory and switch them with a simple bank number. Up to 128 "banks" would be nice, that way you could specify them with a single character in the MIDI stream. If you are using a tuning with a lot of pitches such as more than 31TET your range of octaves becomes limited (128 note numbers divided by the number of pitches) so you would want separate channels to have different tuning ranges. Global tunings are handy when you have multiple synths and you want them to be in tune. We've covered the realtime versus next note on the list before and I think the consensus was that most people would like to have the option. Perhaps it should be part of the "bank" specification. Starting note number could go here also. Here's an idea. How about having some "banks" predifined as tunings that are in common use such as 19 and 31 TET Valotti+Young and others specified as "user". You should be able to set up a "bank" or "banks" to receive a MIDI Tuning Standard dump prior to a performance and switch between the "banks" in real time. I use the term "bank" in quotes because it is a term much used with slightly different meanings by synth players. ---Fred. --------------------------------------------------------- Fred Kohler, #7-240 Burnside Rd E, Victoria, BC, Canada phone:(250)388-7918 email:Fred_Kohler@bc.sympatico.ca