MOTM

Strangely, the only synth I know of that was *specifically designed*
to support microtonal tunings is the Yamaha TX-802! (Well, and
the Synergy!)

BTW: it is sold, but they crop up on rec.music.makers.synth
all the time for ~$225.

Paul S.

I have a TX81Z that allowed me to do some stuff, but it was a bear. I also
bought a third-party operating system for my Mirage from John Lord that let
me work microtonally with that thing, but MT in a sampler is... well, it
just ain't right. At least with that one. 

I was also able to do 19-tone Equal on my ESQ-M by editing every voice that
I wanted to use and scaling the pitch control. So for a while I was using
these three machines to play with some MT. However, those machines had such
poor tuning resolution that it really wasn't a fair test of alternate
tunings.

Didn't Carlos use the Synergy for her early microtonal works? I picked up a
Kurzweil K2000 because she seems to swear by those now, doing most of her
work with two of them MIDI'd together, but I honestly haven't had much time
to spend with it recently, or to figure out the tuning tables. 

So when you say "specifically designed," that's an important term-a lot of
machines let you kludge MT in if you were willing to stand on your head to
do it, but I have yet to find a synthesizer that makes it easy.

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Paul Schreiber [mailto:synth1@...]


		Strangely, the only synth I know of that was *specifically
designed*
		to support microtonal tunings is the Yamaha TX-802! (Well,
and
		the Synergy!)

> Strangely, the only synth I know of that was *specifically designed*
> to support microtonal tunings is the Yamaha TX-802! (Well, and
> the Synergy!)

I think there were a few more Yamaha synths from around that period with
fairly sophisticated tuning abilities.  Wendy Carlos did 'Switched-On Bach
2000' using an SY99 and a whole bunch of other digital gear (including
Yamaha's first digital mixer - I've seen one but I forget the model number
- it's this huge heavy brick with six or eight channels) ... the booklet
contains a long paean to how much _better_ all this new digital gear is
than the bad old analog ... I guess if she was trying to make real
orchestral music with drifty Moog oscillators it must have gotten
frustrating :)

Just like my roommate's computer-music prof, Howard Sandroff, who sold a
huge Serge system for like $1000 sometime in the mid-80s.  He's never
admitted he was wrong either ...

Anyway, I don't know if the SY99 does scales other than twelve-step
divided octaves, but it _does_ tune individual notes, so that Wendy was
able to use a different "baroquely correct" tuning for each piece on
SOB2k.  SY99's are incredibly expensive and hard to find now, though.

peace,
Chris Jeris

>I think there were a few more Yamaha synths from around that period with
>fairly sophisticated tuning abilities.
the Yamaha VL1m supports around 80 or so microtunings - but then again it
would be pretty dim to design a (sorry, "the") flagship acoustic modelling
synth but force everything on it to adhere to concert pitch.

cheerspaulb

>>***Ken.Tkacs@... writes***:
 I was also able to do 19-tone Equal on my ESQ-M by editing every voice that
 I wanted to use and scaling the pitch control. So for a while I was using
 these three machines to play with some MT. However, those machines had such
 poor tuning resolution that it really wasn't a fair test of alternate
 tunings.
 Didn't Carlos use the Synergy for her early microtonal works? I picked up a
 Kurzweil K2000 because she seems to swear by those now, doing most of her
 work with two of them MIDI'd together, but I honestly haven't had much time
 to spend with it recently, or to figure out the tuning tables.****<<

Elhardt writes:
This got me to thinking.  The Roland JV series also allows setting the 
individual 12 frequecies per scale.  If you wanted to get 19 microtonal notes 
per scale on a synth that allows the above 12 note manipulation, you could 
maybe create two patches in multi-timbral mode, each with tuned notes 
covering part of a scale.  One midi channel controls the first 12 notes, and 
another midi channel controls the additional 7, so now you can get your 19 
(or any number) note scale.

-Elhardt

In a message dated 99-11-04 17:49:48 EST, you write:

<<  I have yet to find a synthesizer that makes it easy.
  >>




although no longer being made ( for some years now ! ) and hideously 
expensive ( well, i didn`t need the house, car, wife and kids anyway...... ), 
motorola made and distributed a machine specifically designed to do 
microtonal music called a "scalatron". i used to have a demo tape around here 
somewhere........ kind of a blend of synth and organ technologies with a 
secor generalized keyboard and the ability to be set up to do just about any 
microtonal or just scale. it was an awesome looking instrument!!!!!
best,
dave

Wow, I've never heard of that.

-----Original Message-----
From: DAVEVOSH@...
motorola made and distributed a machine specifically designed to do 
microtonal music called a "scalatron........ kind of a blend of synth and
organ technologies with a secor generalized keyboard and the ability to be
set up to do just about any microtonal or just scale. it was an awesome
looking instrument!!!!!