source file: m1392.txt Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 14:39:49 -0500 Subject: RE: delurking (synthesizer tuning capabilities) From: "Loffink, John" > From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison) > > Best I can tell from your website, and from what I've heard, the K2x00 > does not make possible my 88CET keyboard mapping, wherein the gap between > adjacent keys is 88 cents except for that between G#/Ab and A, wherein its > zero. Since it's not completely equally tempered (because of the skipped > G#/Ab key), and since it doesn't repeat in octaves, it sounds like it > doesn't fit either provision.) > > Is that correct? > Nonoctave equal temperaments are not a problem. I gave examples of Carlos alpha, beta and gamma and Bohlen-Pierce at my web site. Because of the skipped key, however, I'm not sure you could accomplish this scale on a K2000/K2500. It might be possible to adjust the pitch every nth key using a quantize function, but I'd need a better understanding of your scale to do this, such as a mapping from MIDI note number to cents for the entire keyboard. I'm not sure where the successive gaps will occur since your scale is non-octave repeating and the G#/Ab of the first octave is not the same as the other octaves. > From: david first > > As someone who has been de-tuning digital synthesizers - Casios > (CZ's&VZ's), > Yamahas (DX7II & TG77), and Kurzweil (K2000) - for twelve years, I am > constantly surprised by what is considered acceptable pitch resolution for > just tunings. Its been my experience that even the simplest of pitch > arrays > can be frustratingly arbitrary on any of the above named instruments. Of > course, this would clearly be the case on the Casios and Yamahas which all > had > resolutions larger than one cent, but what finally opened my eyes was my > initial experience with the k2000 which has a fine tuning resolution of > one > cent. The Kurzweil had less pure intervals available than the others! Upon > reflection I realized that due to the larger than one cent tuning res. of > the > Casios (CZ - 1.667 ct res./VZ - 1.5625 ct res.) & the Yamahas (1.171875 ct > res.), at least once in a while one could stumble upon a relationship that > came somewhat close to a purely tuned inverval. On the other hand, the > K2000, > with its 1200 parts per octave was in essence a type of "equal > temperament" > with no possiblity of even accidentally coming close to the decimals > needed > for seriously just tunings. > > Since this experience (in 1992) I had the realization that the only way > to > achieve pure ratio derived tunings on a digital synth was to make my own > samples at the desired frequencies and import them into my K2000. Perhaps > some > acceptable fudging can be done with the above instruments if one is > composing > percussive/pianistic types of music, but make no mistake - one is still > only > approximating just intonation when using ANY commercial hardware synth's > tuning table. > So what is the minimum pitch resolution that is acceptable? Is this for music comprised mostly of long sustained harmonies? > John Loffink jloffink@pdq.net