EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 34, Issue 02 This issue's topics: Hardware questions and answers any HARD DISK RECORDING folks around? (2 messages) ART Multiverb Alpha (2 messages) Casio VZ mailing list Casio VZ10M ELP & Voice-to-MIDI (4 messages) EPS questions (2 messages) Fadeout (2 messages) gr500 (2 messages) Korg 707 ?? (3 messages) Please, advise on a good keyboard Roland JX-3P (2 messages) VZ10m (3 messages) waldorf/td (3 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1991 22:01:13 GMT From: ooptk@MSU.OSCS.MONTANA.EDU Subject: any HARD DISK RECORDING folks around? Howdy, I want to work my way into a hard disk recording system. Any folks out there who are doing it? I sent off to Turtle Beach for their demo tape, but it's been a month now, and still nothing in the mail. I see that Electronic Musician has a few articles and newer advertisements on the subject. Would like to hear some feedback on the current systems available for under $5,000. Is a stand alone system more superior to a PC/MAC add on system? why? thanks Terry ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1991 13:29:44 GMT From: BIOF-PJK@FINOU.OULU.FI Subject: Re: any HARD DISK RECORDING folks around? have you checked out Digidesign's Sound Tools/Pro Tools system ? Runs on a Mac, 16 bits and all standard sampling freqs 56001 DSP chip and fairly good software. A good friend of mine is operating such a system in a local studio. I can ask him some questions, if you want to know something special. October 1990 issue of Studio Sound has a review of Sound Tools, as well as about other systems in '90-'91 issues. Pasi Korhonen pkor\phoenix.oulu.fi biof-pjk\finou.oulu.fi ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1991 11:18:53 EST From: Jon Crystal Subject: ART Multiverb Alpha Has anyone had experience yet with the new effects box from ART which got a pretty good write-up recently in Keyboard (or was it Electronic Mus.?)? Any thoughts versus LXP-5 or others in this price range? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1991 10:40:07 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: ART Multiverb Alpha >Has anyone had experience yet with the new effects box from ART which got >a pretty good write-up recently in Keyboard (or was it Electronic Mus.?)? >Any thoughts versus LXP-5 or others in this price range? I don't know anything about the ART box but a big benefit of the LXP machines is that they can be programmed from an MRC rather than by squinting into a tiny display in a rack unit. The LXP-15 doesn't have MRC support (unless the MRC software has been updated), which is why I intend to stick with LXP-5's and LXP-1's as my preferred effects boxes for the time being. Nick. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1991 05:16:13 GMT From: Ismail Dalgic Subject: Casio VZ mailing list I just wanted to let everyone know that I have created a mailing list for Casio VZ1/VZ10M/VZ8M users. The purpose of the list is to exchange patches, ideas or anything else related to VZ's (well, that was obvious, wasn't it? :-). Anybody is welcome to subscribe to the list, and at the moment there are 10 subscribers. The address of the list is vz-list@cs.stanford.edu, and the requests for submission should be made to me at dalgic@cs.stanford.edu. Happy Synthing, --Ismail Dalgic --------------------------------------------------------------- Ismail DALGIC Office: (415) 723-9330 dalgic@cs.stanford.edu Home : (415) 323-6355 --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1991 09:43:00 EST From: Mario Vergona Subject: Re: Casio VZ10M hi In case you are interested, the reason for its 'strange' MIDI channel set up is that it was envisioned as the module companion to the CASIO synth guitar. There are 2 model synth guitars, one has the synth module built into it and is about 700 the other is just a midi guitar (?) and people were suppose to buy the module togo with it. There are a few sound cards out there for it, I think Sound Source has 1. m ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1991 09:47:40 EST From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: ELP > From: Guy Brown Re EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 41, Number 4 > Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the > Emerson, Lake, and Palmer arrangement of Aaron Copland's > "Fanfare for the Common Man" ... Kirk's plea reminded me of an old issue of Electronics and Music Maker which has a lengthy interview with Keith Emerson. The front cover has a wonderful picture of the man in his barn studio, complete with a chicken about to do its business over the mixing desk...anyway, the good news is that according to the interview,a book of transcriptions, imaginatively called "ELP", is published by Music Sales Ltd 78 Newman Street London W1P 3LA UK The bad news is that the magazine dates from May 1983, so the company may have gone bust, or could have been burned to the ground by angry punk rockers trying to put an end to "progressive" rock music. Anyway, in the abscence of other information it may be worth a try. Evidently the transcriptions were checked by Emerson himself, and represent exactly what he played on the albums. While I am here, does anyone know of a device which will convert voice pitch to MIDI? A colleague of mine has a student project which is attempting to map pitch and other voice parameters onto MIDI, and he is wondering about the commercial possibilities of the completed device. I have heard rumours of an instrument called the MIDIMIKE, which may do a similar thing, but I can find no information on it. Can anyone help? Does anyone have any opinions on the usefulness of voice-to-MIDI? If no-one has tried it before, why not? Guy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1991 10:32:00 EDT From: RAY BROHINSKY Subject: Re: ELP I saw a copy of ELP in the Norwich, CT music store, so it must be available elsewhere. (There is absolutely nothing in Norwich that isn'g available somewhere in greater quantity or quality. Even crazy's and hills. ) As for voice-params to midi: EVL's Pitchrider, in various of it's versions, translated the pitch of various instruments or mic inputs to midi info. I never could afford to use one, let alone own one. If your friend makes a voice-param to midi converter, I'd like to know what params of the voice will be converted to which MIDI params. Unless great care is taken here, or extremes of programmability and cross-mapping is left in the finished product, it could be utterly useless. To whit: The WX line of wind midi controllers. You can use it as it comes out of the box, and the thumb-wheel and reed control pitch bend and the breath input controls velocity. This may be fine, but it leads to trouble if you want breath control to be similar to what happens on a real wind instrument. You can set the breath to control aftertouch and map that to volume in your synth. Now, attacks are gone because the lag from starting the note (crossing the threshold) to achieving audible sound (from the volume data) is fairly long for all but the most sharply-tongued notes. Those sharply-tongued notes are outrageously loud for attacks, but may fall off immediately after words if the voice is at all percussive. This is especially noticeable when using Yamaha synths like the FB01. I have been told that the FB01 is not a `good enough' synth for the wind synthesis. I agree only in that the WX's control choices are not designed to work well on very much, midi-wise. I can get around some of these problems with mappers and ingenuity, but the reed-thumbwheel problem is beyond fixing. These two are irreparably locked together. You can't control mod with one and pitch with the other. There is no equivalent to the mod wheel at all! You could map breath to mod wheel, but breath is also irrevocably tied to velocity... So your friend might profit greatly at this end of his design by publishing his control intentions to the group and getting response from his likely customers. raybro ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1991 18:45:05 EST From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: ELP (fwd) Forwarded message: > From: as@leland.stanford.edu (Amit Shoham) There are several devices that do voice->MIDI conversion. They range from a "sharper image" type toy called the "Breakaway Vocalizer" which is a sing-along machine that plays cheezy auto-accompaniments for you to sing along with, and then plays a cheezy synth sound along with your voice, to professional pitch to MIDI converters. Probably the best professional pitch to MIDI converter is the IVL pitchrider. All the devices that attempt pitch to MIDI conversion suffer from some common problems: They all have a slight delay between the time you start singing and the time the note-on message is sent, and they all have a hard time handling situations like trills or sliding from one note to another. These devices typically aren't very useful unless you have pretty good pitch and you're careful to avoid sliding too much between notes. If you're willing to put up with their various quirks, however, they can make very intuitive controllers! Hope this helps... Amit ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1991 09:55:00 EST From: wbf@CBEMA.ATT.COM Subject: ELP & Voice-to-MIDI > From: Guy Brown > > While I am here, does anyone know of a device which will convert voice pitch > to MIDI? A colleague of mine has a student project which is attempting to map > pitch and other voice parameters onto MIDI, and he is wondering about the > commercial possibilities of the completed device. I have heard rumours of > an instrument called the MIDIMIKE, which may do a similar thing, but I can > find no information on it. Can anyone help? Does anyone have any opinions on > the usefulness of voice-to-MIDI? If no-one has tried it before, why not? > > Guy I have a Roland VP70 vocal processor which does pitch-to-MIDI conversion as well as MIDI control of pitch shifting. In the p->M mode, it converts a monophonic source from its mic or line inputs into MIDI messages. This works OK after a fashion. I haven't used it to any great extent because I have keyboard, drum pad, and guitar controllers to input MIDI data into my sequencer. I haven't had any real need to controll a synth from my (shakey) voice or saxophone. But that's a way to layer synth sounds with a voice or band or orchestral type instrument. In the M->p mode, MIDI can be used to control four pitch shifters. Voila! Instant harmony vocals! But this requires an input vocal that is bland compared to a lead singer's style. And shifting pitches too far causes munchkinization. This type of device is still too gimicky for serious use with pop/rock/jazz music. But it is still fun and functional enough to use in a pinch... with a little practice it does OK buried deep in a mix. It could help create great source material for sampling. Hmmmm....... I have heard of the MIDIMIKE and even saw a demo a long time ago. I don't remember much at all so I must not have been interested or impressed. Sorry. Bill Fox ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1991 09:30:09 EST From: adamson%itd.nrl.navy.mil@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU (Brian Adamson) Subject: EPS questions 1) The EPS (at least the 16+) is *not* sensitive to release velocity. It always sends a release velocity of 64 (according to the users manual). 2) Therefore, you can't program it to be sensitive to release. 4?) -- Brian Adamson NRL Code 5523 adamson@itd.nrl.navy.mil ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1991 17:40:51 EST From: ronin Subject: Re: EPS questions minor ignorant quibble here... > 1) The EPS (at least the 16+) is *not* sensitive to release > velocity. It always sends a release velocity of 64 (according > to the users manual). > > 2) Therefore, you can't program it to be sensitive to release. > just because the keyboard does not itself sport release velocity sensitivity it does not necessarily follow that the synthesis engine is insensitive to release velocity data. they could be anticipating more advanced external controllers, interesting mapping, or even a cleverly-programmed sequencer. the oberheim matrix 6 is an example. its keyboard was not release sensitive, either, but that parameter does appear in its matrix modulation page as a control source. i don't know the eps, of course, but the potential can not be ruled out just on the basis of the controller. -------------< Extremism in the Pursuit of Good Noise is no Vice >------- Eric Harnden (Ronin) or The American University Physics Dept. Washington, D.C ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1991 11:07:01 EST From: Jonathan Subject: Fadeout I was just thinking this morning... does anybody know who first ended a recorded piece of music with a fadeout? (By fadeout I mean deliberately and gradually attenuating the signal, not acoustic decrescendo). My best guess would be the Beatles, but I'm not that well-listened. This could probably be considered one of the first widely-accepeted electronic ways of modifying music, which is why I post here. Just wondering.... Jonathan Foote : : Division of Engineering : internet: : BITNET: Brown University, Box D : jtf@lems.brown.edu : JFOOTE@BROWNVM Providence, RI 02912 : : "Life is a SNAK-PAK and there is but one box of SUGAR POPS" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1991 12:59:04 EST From: Marshall Gilula Subject: Re: Fadeout I would guess it was Les Paul and Mary Ford, as they antedate the Beatles, I believe. this is a response to the question: does anybody know who first ended a recorded piece of music with a fadeout? (By fadeout I mean deliberately and gradually attenuating the signal, not acoustic decrescendo). -73- Marshall Gilula ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1991 16:31:32 EST From: carl Subject: pg500 synth guitar Hi all! I just recently purchased a roland pg500 synth guitar. So far so good. It's a bit dusty on some of the contacts but other than that it plays fine. Anybody else out there own one of these? If so, maybe we could exchange some patches in the future or you could give me some tips on using the beast!! carl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1991 11:59:28 EST From: carl Subject: gr500 Hmmm... Did i say my synth guitar was a PG500. I guess i got i mixed up with the pg800 programmer on my JX8P. No, it's a GR500 synth guitar. Well, if anyone else out there has one i wouldn't mind talking to you about it. I'm interested in discussing the history of the beast, new and interesting patches, and possibly some technical stuff. carl ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1991 13:57:00 EDT From: "John Young, Southern CT State Univ" Subject: Korg 707 ?? Does anyone have or know anything about the Korg 707? I saw one used for $250 (US) and it looks like it could make a neat little portable controller. I know it has 49 keys, but thats about all. It was not listed on the used price list, so I don't know how good this price is also. Whatever anyone can tell me would be appreciated... Thanks, John Young Southern CT State University New Haven, CT. BITNET%"YOUNG@CTSTATEU" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1991 09:52:00 EST From: Mario Vergona Subject: Re: Korg 707 ?? hi there, The 707 has a very good sound arch. I always liked it. There are still a number of sound banks available for it from 3rd party vendors. ALEXANDER publishing still has there 707 guide book in print, so if you get the 707, you should get this book immed. The sliders on the top of the keyboard prodvide a quick edit function, so you can change change various parameters as you play. Keybaord as well as Electronic musician and music technology all gave it very favorable reviews and said it was a good buy at the original price. m p.s. If I saw it for 250 I'd get it. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1991 10:57:35 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: Korg 707 ?? [Second attempt at posting...] >p.s. If I saw it for 250 I'd get it. The 707's came in some truly disgusting colours. It might upset your entire decor - make sure you know what colour you're getting. Nick. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1991 17:08:12 EST From: Alex Vilner Subject: Please, advise on a good keyboard Hi, everybody! I am not a professional musician, and so the things I will say may seem childish to most of you ... Now I have a Yamaha PSR27 keyboard that has 100 diff. sounds, 20 diff, accompa- niment styles and 1 memory register to store the chords for harmony for auto- accompaniment. That's all it has. I also have an IBM compatible 386 computer that I would like to use with the keyboard. (the kb that I have now does not have MIDI). The things I would like to do with the keyboard are: 1) Use auto accompaniment and play some favorite melodies with variations, 2) Use diff. sounds (with or without accompaniment) to write my own pretty simple stuff. 3) Just use the keyboard as the piano (I have 7-year background in piano) when I want to relax ... I would like the computer to assist me in writing my own pieces of music, as well as to improve playing favorites. I would also like the KB to be MORE polyphonic than the one I have (8 sounds at the most), and to have a sustain pedal (not a sustain button !!!) And the last requirement is the price range: not more than $400. Can anyone recommend a good keyboard that matches all my criteria, and a place where I can find it (if it is a warehouse -- address and phone number would be appreciated). Thank you for your patience. Alex Vilner ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1991 20:37:07 EST From: Simon Weatherill Subject: Roland JX-3P I just saw a Roland JX-3P (used) for sale for $300. Is this a good price? What can this keyboard do? The add said that it had MIDI in & out (no thru), stereo out, full sized keys. Thanks in advance. simon_weatherill@coat.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1991 13:53:03 GMT From: Martin Liebl Subject: Roland JX-3P The Roland JX-3P is one of the first synths which had a MIDI interface; Here the complete MIDI spec: - Send and receive Note On/Off and Pitch Bender; only MIDI channel 1 That's all (no velocity or sysex or so on)! It's a digital controlled analog synth; it's got some sort of sequencer, not comparable to what we call sequencer now, no MIDI seq! The sound is (my opinion) very thin and cold, no power, even 2 DCO's and the built in chorus doesn't help. I have played this thing over five years, and here's my opinion on it: For $300 try to get a Roland Juno with MIDI, or Korg DW8000 or some sort of Roland Alpha Juno, they all sound better! If you need it only as a MIDI board: depends on what you wanna do with it but you shouldn't be able to find a board with less MIDI possibilities than the JX-3P. hope i helped a bit martin liebl ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1991 13:48:46 BRA From: Flavio <87141167@BRUFSC.BITNET> Subject: Re: VZ10m Hello guys, At august or september Music & Technology issue, was reviewed a patch/librarian editor for the VZ, made by QUINSOFT. They said that the vz is very dificult to program, because it has the worst user interface ever made; there are only three third-party banks of sounds ( 2 in the software, 1 by Sound Source Unlimited ); there are 8 cards from Casio; and that this synth is a very good machine. This software is ST only, for while! Greetings, Flavio _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Flavio Bressan | ISSUES: MIDI,Music,Hard/Software,HP28S,Women,AMIGA, 87141167@BRUFSC | ATARIST,APPLEII,PC,Elec. Eng.,and much more... Grad in Electri |------------------------------------------------------- cal Engineering | -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1991 09:32:42 MST From: Adam Schabtach Subject: Re: VZ10m > At august or september Music & Technology issue, was reviewed a > patch/librarian editor for the VZ, made by QUINSOFT. They said that > the vz is very dificult to program, because it has the worst user > interface ever made; I doubt that it has the worst. Given its sizeable LCD, it should be able to display more information at a time than a machine with a 2x16-character display. Also, doesn't it provide graphs of some of its parameters? (My personal pick for the worst user interface ever made goes to the Yamaha RX5 drum machine, followed closely by the TX81Z.) --Adam ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1991 05:43:57 GMT From: Ismail Dalgic Subject: Re: VZ10m In article 87141167@BRUFSC.BITNET (Flavio) writes: >Hello guys, > > > At august or september Music & Technology issue, was reviewed a >patch/librarian editor for the VZ, made by QUINSOFT. They said that >the vz is very dificult to program, because it has the worst user >interface ever made; I have to strongly disagree with that point of view. Given the complex sound architecture of the VZ, I think the user interface is very good. The menu structure is very logical and consistent, many parameters can be easily copied from one oscillator to another (how I miss that when I program my D110 :-( ), and the large LCD screen with graphical envelope editing is great. It is definitely a well thought and well structured interface. In fact, after I got used to it, I figured that I will never need an editor for my VZ1, I just need a librarian. Of course, given that QUINSOFT people want to sell their ed/lib, it is not surprising that they will put down the user interface of the VZ. But this is not fair at all. There are lots of much worse user interfaces around, even for synths with a simpler architecture. > there are only three third-party banks of sounds > ( 2 in the software, 1 by Sound Source Unlimited ); there are 8 cards ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > from Casio; and that this synth is a very good machine. What do you mean by "in the software"? Do you mean in public domain? If so, there are at least 4 PD banks that I know of. Also I have seen advertisements of patches in the keyboard magazine by other companies than SSU. It seems that the only thing that I can agree with what these guys are saying is that it is indeed a very good machine for the price. > This software is ST only, for while! Thank you for sharing this information with us, Flavio. But I guess I would never buy their software even if I had an ST. How can I trust them if they try to misinform their customers or do not know the obvious facts straight? Please do not take this as a personal flame. However, you may regard it as a flame directed towards QUINSOFT. >Greetings, >Flavio > >_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- >Flavio Bressan | ISSUES: MIDI,Music,Hard/Software,HP28S,Women,AMIGA, >87141167@BRUFSC | ATARIST,APPLEII,PC,Elec. Eng.,and much more... >Grad in Electri |------------------------------------------------------- >cal Engineering | >-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Ismail Dalgic --------------------------------------------------------------- Ismail DALGIC Office: (415) 723-9330 dalgic@cs.stanford.edu Home : (415) 323-6355 --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1991 17:02:51 MST From: Adam Schabtach Subject: Re: waldorf/td Whoops... It was me who suggested listening to TD's "Exit" (although the suggestion originally came from Nick, back when he was the only one on the Net with a Waldorf). Yes, what I meant was that most of Exit was done with PPGs (except for the drum sounds). The Microwave, being very, very similar to the PPG 2.2, sounds much the same. "White Eagle" also has a fair amount of PPG material. Sorry for the confusion, --Adam ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1991 18:05:58 EST From: ronin Subject: waldorf/td someone, i can't remember who, suggested listening to the tangerine dream album 'exit' to get a sense of the uses of the waldorf. this is, of course, impossible, since 'exit' was cut in 1981. did you mean that 'exit' has some ppg stuff on it? since the waldorf is supposed to be the ppg's scion... or did you mean another td album? -------------------< Cognitive Dissonance is an Art Form >--------------- Eric Harnden (Ronin) or The American University Physics Dept. Washington, D.C ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1991 15:21:12 +0000 From: Nick Rothwell Subject: Re: waldorf/td >It was me who suggested listening to TD's "Exit" (although the >suggestion originally came from Nick, back when he was the only one on >the Net with a Waldorf). Eeh, those were the days... >Yes, what I meant was that most of Exit was >done with PPGs (except for the drum sounds). I've listened to EXIT quite closely, and I can't hear *anything* there (apart from the percussion and vocals) which couldn't have been done with a PPG. I'm not saying it all was, but I don't hear anything which couldn't be. The sounds there are absolutely superb and show what can happen when you really let rip with a PPG. >"White Eagle" also >has a fair amount of PPG material. As do LOGOS (such as all the buzzy stuff at the beginning), WAVELENGTH and POLAND. If you're interested, TD's latest, MELROSE, has some Waldorf on it. They use one of the presets (Leone's Wet Dream) all over the place, and not terribly effectively. As far as I can tell, they haven't actually programmed the thing. Another sign of their deep decline. Nick. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1991 09:29:11 est From: Rick Duffy Subject: Re: Yamaha contacts >Yamaha phone number: Here's one you might try: Yamaha International 6600 Orangethorpe Avenue Buena Park, California 90620 (714) 522-9011 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1991 11:16:25 EDT From: HAGEMEPP@DUVM.BITNET Subject: Yamaha contacts Greetings and happ Halloween to you all! Can someone who knows Yamaha's phone numbers for parts and/or catalogs send them to me or post then on the list?? Thanks in advance..... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1991 12:14:37 EST From: Jon Crystal Subject: Re: Yamaha contacts Yamaha Consumer Services: 800 443-2232 Tech Support (and Parts I think) 800 854-3619 Good luck with catalogs. They don't seem to care about producing up-to-date catalogs for aftermarket items (soundcards, etc.) although are pretty good on product slicks. ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************