[sdiy] Linear detuning and Gamelan

[CCartCat at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/4/05 12:25:05 PM, spr at spridley.freeserve.co.uk writes:


> 
> > I wondered what anyone knows about Gamelan tuning in relation to linear 
> detuning. 
> 
> I suspect something like a Serge TKB or a Buchla 112 would be a better 
> route.  I'm fairly
> ignorant on Gamelan tuning, but I reckon the ability to detune on a note be 
> note basis
> would be necessary.
> 
> 
> Steve
> 

Thanks to everyone who's replied so far on & off list.   I was hoping that 
people with closer/more hands-on experience with Gamelan (or for that matter, 
synths and SDIY) would weigh in on this.

For example, the above reply mentions the Buchla 112, which via Google I came 
to understand is a keyboard with 2 individually tunable CV outputs per key.   
Indeed, one approach to getting a Balinese Gamelan effect in a synth would be 
tuning note for note to the desired scale and beat difference relation of 
each instrument pair/note.   At least for bass register instruments, which (as 
kindly posted) are generally played in unison, one would have the option in an 
analog setup of sending separate pitch CVs to two complex but similar 
modular/semi-modular patches.   Doing the same sort of thing with MIDI and/or virtual 
instruments (again as posted) would be possible.

My line of questioning on this dual approach for detuned unisons is partly in 
regard to the idea that linear detuning is boring by itself and needs some 
non-linearity to spice things up.   I'm curious, when dealing with an original 
Balinese Gamelan or some elaborate synthesis that has a similar timbral 
complexity, whether linear detuning is no longer boring.   Is such a dull consistency 
hidden, or helpful, in the context of complex clanging timbres?

Or (suppose I should be googling tuning charts, such as they might exist, for 
a specific Balinese Gamelan) is the detuning used in Balinese Gamelan so 
strictly linear?

As musicians and Gamelan builders tune with care (another good posting on the 
20 min spent tuning) but not with a strobe, I may be taking an overly 
clinical view of things.   Who's to say that even a builder with sharp experienced 
ears is going to really attempt to create a dead consistent 2 Hz beat 
difference?   Or that the musicians will choose that exact pitch relation over and over 
every time they tune.   There's bound to be some slop or conscientious 
sweetening that may not exactly equal what's linear detuning.

Were that the case, using linear detuning to create a Gamelan like sound 
would lack any such variations and may perhaps end up sounding less interesting.   
Something ultimately one would probably just have to rig up and try out.

Sorry if this is rather OT or abstract.   Beyond those of us who are fans or 
practitioners of Gamelan music, I would hope that in relation to SDIY this 
wondering aloud may at least help to shine some new, if oblique, light upon the 
issues of stable and not-so-stable VCOs, tempcos, the much hazier notions of 
"warmth" and "fatness" or well, something of use. <g>

Thanks again,
K. Seward
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