source file: m1531.txt
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 11:23:23 +0530

Subject: Software for writing Xenharmonic music!?

From: Drew Skyfyre <steele@bom2.vsnl.net.in>

Wotcha!

Is it my imagination, or is there a dearth of notation software tools to
write 
Xenharmonic music, which is one of the main reasons for the
slow progress & proliferation of microtonality ? 

I downloaded the notation software "Lime" (thanks for the tip John C.)
a few days ago to see how it would work for me. I wanted to be able to
enter music using std. notation symbols for note duration values 
(whole note, 16th etc.). The only place I know of that this is possible,
is in 
notation programs. Unfortunately, they seem to be so entrenched in the
std. 12-TET world that even when they claim to have microtonal
features, (like Lime with special microtonal accidentals, etc.) they
seem
only partly thought out. Even a neophyte Xenharmonicist like myself
can list some pretty basic/logical notation and MIDI features that could
make life 
so much easier. 

I know of George Hajdu's Max patch for displaying some microtunings, 
but it too relies on the std. staff and the conventions associated with
that.
I know Monzo's working on something, though I think he's not yet able to 
say when it'll be ready. 

Perhaps some of the text based systems might be more efficient,
i.e., HMSL, Siren, etc. ? 

Am I right in thinking that the std. notation conventions for notating
temporal
details are pretty much accepted and used by most musicians, leaving
only the
actual pitch notaion as the problem ?

Which means that there's a big gaping hole in the sequencer/notation
software
market for a program that has the kind flexibility in pitch and MIDI
capabilities  
as there already is in temporal capabilities. Maybe it's time to get
hold of some
of those  Java "How-to"  books :-)

I believe it would  be interesting to hear how the rest of you cope with
this problem.
Most of the gear talk is focused on synths and the like, so how about it
? 
Got any secrets and/or secret weapons to tell about ?


I'm using "tunings" that are sets of 24 notes chosen from various other
tunings
so I have a reasonable variety while still being able to cope, me still
being a newbie.
I have them set up as a different "scale tuning" on 2 different MIDI
channels.
Being a step input kind of guy, I'm trying out writing the music on good
old
paper first, then inputing the music into Lime as std. notation (so I
have the
temporal data correct), then saving it as a MIDI file, then editing it
in event list
view where I just have to enter the correct MIDI channel number to the 
appropriate notes. Fun, no ?

Oh, yeah, you may want to check this out : "Silence" by Michael Gogins,
algorithmic
Composition software written in Java. <www.pipeline.com/~gogins> . Very
interesting.

G'day,
Drew