Archive for June, 2010

Fat Bebe Micro

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

This is a microtonal Jazz-ish piece produced with some newly developed techniques.

Norm Harris provides the excellent percussion. I probably could have made it easier on myself by not being so chromatic… but there it is.

Download or Play
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=483

The piano, bass, and saxophones are a Roland GR-20 played in 19 notes per octave – how this is done is described below.

Fender guitar to Roland GR-20 – the GR-20 has “local control off” and each string has its data sent on a separate channel
midi from the GR-20 (the play of the mustang) goes to the laptop (midi to usb)

Fractal Tune Smithy takes the midi in and re-tunes it live from 12 edo to 19 edo using closest midi note + pitch bend commands
the re-tuned midi data is sent back to the GR-20

The GR-20 plays the data and gives analog output and the analog out is sent to the Alesis mixer and then to the desktop computer

The desktop running Sonar uses the analog input as it would any live signal and records it.

The lead guitar is a Fender Squier Strat copy which I ripped off the frets and then back filled the fret cuts with plastic wood + sanded. The Squier is run through an Alesis mix into Sonar with Guitar Rig 4.

I took about 6 shots at the lead using Sonar’s automatic multiple take function and then edited the takes to take what I wanted. The leads could be better – though this is the first time I tried something so microtonal in this idiom with the fretless guitar.

Tuning Survey continues (6/11/2010)

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Here is a another set of tunings I tried with my Fender guitar, Roland GR-20, and Fractal Tune Smithy

And the Heavens Opened Up
Partials of a major 3rd bell – root 523.6 Hz, 9th is hum note.
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=425

The Mechanics of Government
Boethius’ chromatic – the chromatic interval is 19/16
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=427

Monkey at the Keyboard
Blackjack tuning I assume is centered on G and D

http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=423

Children in the Laboratory
Rational in Wilson and Grady style version, Paul Erlich
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=426

Dying Swans in Gorky Park
Blackjack tuning maximizing 1:3:7:9:11
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=424

Almost Jazz (Sorry for the high end aliasing – hmmm not sure what to do about that – it was clean during the performance.)
Big Gulp tuning – whatever that is!!
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=421

Quasi Music
Sounds a lot like 12 equal…. Quasi equal temperament
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=422

Tuning Survey continues

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Using the same Roland GR-20 / Fender Mustang / Fractal Tune Smithy technique I explored a few more tunings:

9 ET Sorog
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=335

12 tet & 17 limit quasi-meantone simultaneously
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=334

In A 12 tet
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=333

A blend of 12 tet and Stellated one out of 1:3:5 triany
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=332

Survey of Tunings using a Roland GR-20

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

The other night I was able to use a new version of Fractal Tune Smithy which worked wonderfully as a relay tuner for my Roland GR-20.
I then did a survey of a small portion of the *vast* number of tunings in the scala library. Essentially I loaded an interesting tuning and tried to find some chordal or melodic something to base an improvisation on and if I could find something I tried it. A few of these improvisations didn’t get saved to saved – I captured the ones most interesting to me. Also, in this series I include several GR-20 patches including piano and sometimes an inboard effect from my Alesis mixer.

Unmelodic Chromatic genus of Aristoxenos Dorian Mode
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=255

Six Tone Triadic Cluster 4:5:6
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=254

harmonics 4 to 16 in 2 oct
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=253

Eight Tone Triadic Cluster 4:6:5
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=252

Graham Breed fourth based 12-tone keyboard scale
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=251

Clavichord tuning Giovanni Maria Artusi (1603) 1/4th-comma with mean semitones
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=250

13th root of e
http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=249