EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 59, Issue 18 This issue's topics: books (3 messages) CSound (3 messages) Fw: Chaos Corner V03 N08 (just intonation and equal temperment) Grad school question Guitar's players I need help in chosing a synth... (2 messages) i want characteristics desirables of synthetizers (2 messages) Looking for SY99 Editor/librarian for PC/Windows MIDI KEYBOARD AND MIDI FILES Multimedia kits New list member with questions. Non-linear editing Q: tips on writing pop-style music Request for Info sysex (3 messages) vintage elctronic music warranty up? 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. Hi everyone, I'm musician with a BS in Electronic Engineering and I am looking for a excellen t (great) book (s) that explains me everything about: - MIDI, interfaces and software. - Sound Synthesis. - Computer music. - Synthesizers. I'm seriously thinking of buying of a sinthesizer, a MIDI and enough software for my computer. I want to thank you before hand for your promt response. Jose Luis Sanchez E-mail: josel@vms.ucc.okstate.edu" Oklahoma State University ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 09:43:56 GMT From: Philip Jones Subject: re LOOKING FOR BOOKS Jose wrote> I'm musician with a BS in Electronic Engineering and I am looking for a excellen t (great) book (s) that explains me everything about: - MIDI, interfaces and software. - Sound Synthesis. - Computer music. - Synthesizers. I'm seriously thinking of buying of a sinthesizer, a MIDI and enough software for my computer. I want to thank you before hand for your promt response. > Well Joe, before you dive into MIDI, interfaces, software, synthesis etc. you should know that synthesiser is spelt with a y! How about that for a prompt response. Thankyou for your thanks Phil Jones(pj02@ee.ic.ac.uk) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 18:04:33 -0600 From: Chris De Chiara Subject: books Has anyone read Electroacoustic Music / The First Century by Herbert Deutsch . Or Introduction to Midi/Synthesis by Matthew Nichol . They are both published by CPP/Belwin , the advertisement gives no info on either title, if anyone has read them I'd appreciate it if you could post a review. Thanks, Chris De Chiara chrisd@home.interaccess.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 22:38:39 -0500 From: THE DIGITAL WITCHDOCTOR Subject: CSound Hey guys. I just downloaded csound. When I tried to run it (on my pc), it told me that I had a fatal error, and that I had previously installed software that was not d*** compatible. (DVIP or somesuch, I don't remember exactly what). Has anyone else had this problem? Is there anything I can do to remedy this? What exactly is this compatability error? I have another question for you sampling gurus. I have seen numerous cd's advertised claiming to have excellent samples of violins, drums, dying livestock etc... Are these samples on disk as actual sounds that could be heard throug h a cd player, or are they in a .WAV sort of format? thanks. Phil Skiba sps5251@siena.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 08:33:26 +0100 From: Martin Grecner Subject: Re: CSound Hi, I suppose you are running emm386.exe from your config.sys file. Remove it, try to use 386MAX instead, if you need loadhigh functionality. 386MAX supports (and now it goes) DPMI :-) Martin Grecner martin@elf.stuba.sk Bratislava Slovakia ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 14:13:21 -0500 From: Dean Keith Subject: Reply to CSound Phil, >Hey guys. I just downloaded csound. When I tried to run it (on my pc), >it told me that I had a fatal error, and that I had previously installed >software that was not d*** compatible. (DVIP or somesuch, I don't remember >exactly what). > >Has anyone else had this problem? Is there anything I can do to remedy this? >What exactly is this compatability error? If you are running DOS 6.0 or higher, you can re-boot your computer, and when the screen says "Starting MS DOS" press F5, and your autoexec.bat and config.sys will be bypassed leaving a clean system for Csound. If you are running a lower version of DOS, make a boot-disk (FORMAT A: /S) I think. >I have another question for you sampling gurus. I have seen numerous cd's >advertised claiming to have excellent samples of violins, drums, dying livestock > etc... Are these samples on disk as actual sounds that could be heard throug > h >a cd player, or are they in a .WAV sort of format? Unless the CD is marked otherwise, it should be a regular CD, playable on any normal payer. You must sample the sounds from the CD manually. Make sure that you read, to make sure it's not a CD-ROM, or a memory dump for a spacific sampler. ______________________________________________________________________________ Dean Keith dkeith@tarleton.edu Tarleton State University Stephenville, Texas, USA ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 12:54:51 -0600 From: Keith Ostertag Subject: Fw: Chaos Corner V03 N08 (just intonation and equal temperment) This is a fairly long copy of an ejournal which I though might interest some folks. The third "article" discusses just intonation and equal temperment. Enjoy. -Keith [I have edited out everything but the emusic-related stuff. - JM] -------------------------------------------------- Mailbag - Musical Notes - Reprise It appears that musical note frequencies are an issue that ranks up there with USGS maps in terms of reader interest. While Dr. Chaos received interesting notes from Michael Salmon and Nick Gimbrone on the topic, the most instructive came from David Karr in Cornell's Computer Science Department in the area of revision control over occasionally connected computer networks (Dr. Chaos claims that that sounds like many of the meetings he attends). The following is quoted from David's very interesting note: I think what Edward Stuebing means is that "just intonation" is different from "equal temperament." "Just intonation" is related to the harmonics of a tone, that is, when you pluck a string you get not only the fundamental frequency but also harmonics which are 2 times, 3 times, 4 times, and higher integer multiples of the frequency. Doubling the frequency (2x) gives you an octave, for example, c to c' (low C to middle C on a piano). The 4x harmonic of c is then c'', that is, two octaves higher. The frequency ratio 3:2 is a "pure fifth," which in just intonation is the ratio between g and c. So the 3x harmonic of c is g' (an octave and a fifth higher) and the 6x harmonic of c is g'' (two octaves and a fifth higher). In between the 4x and 6x harmonics is the 5x harmonic; the 5:4 ratio is a "pure major third," the ratio between e and c. So the 5x harmonic of c is e'' (two octaves and a major third higher). So the major triad c-e-g has frequency ratio 1:(5/4):(3/2). The C major scale is constructed by taking this chord (the "tonic"), the note c' (the octave above c), and two other major triads: g-b'-d', the "dominant," and f-a'-c', the "subdominant," both of which also have ratios 1:(5/4):(3/2). Divide the resulting frequency for d' to obtain d, and put it all together, and you get the following frequencies relative to c: c 1 d 9/8 e 5/4 f 4/3 g 3/2 a' 5/3 b' 15/8 c' 2 I think there is some tradition for assigning the frequency 256 Hertz to c (the C below middle C) in just intonation, but this makes *all* your notes about a semitone flat: a'= 426.667 Hertz instead of 440 Hertz (the current international standard). Then again, Mozart's and Handel's tuning forks had a'=422 Hertz (see Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music, 1978, under "Pitch"), so maybe that's not so bad. The problem with just intonation is that if you tune a piano to it, some of the whole steps (such as c-d) have 9:8 ratios and some (such as d-e) have 10:9 ratios. Then if you start tuning the black keys (sharps and flats) to try to make the musical keys with one, two, or three sharps or flats sound right, you end up working yourself into a fix where the keys with more sharps or flats sound very strange. So, actually, the "tempering" of the musical scale is just a way of adjusting just intonation so that all musical keys will be playable on a piano. The system of equal temperament is one such adjustment, where each half-tone is given a ratio of exactly 2(1/12):1. But there's apparently some evidence that other "well-tempered" systems have been used, for example by Bach for his Well-Tempered Clavier. A possibility for computer-generated music would be to produce notes of just intonation when playing in a major key (I don't know quite what to do in minor keys or other modes). Most of the time when you start adding or removing sharps or flats from notes, it's for a key change of some sort, in which case you simply produce the just intonation for the new key. This should work out for most key modulations (if you go all the way around the circle of fifths, though, you might run into trouble and have to adjust again). You'd have to do something else for truly chromatic music, of course, since not all half steps can be in the ratio (16/15):1, but then there are lots of other interesting possibilities you could take advantage of, like 19-tone or 31-tone scales or other innovations of modern music theorists. If you are interested in other frequency charts, David Karr recommends the charts in the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Look in the Index under "Musical". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 02:17:34 -1000 From: William Grant Subject: Grad school question Hi Everybody, I am a composer looking for a grad school to start immediately on a Master's. I write interesting music for both computers and live musicians, and I am an effective teacher for novices on the computer. Am 46 years old, and have been a working artist in theater or fine arts for most of my adult life. 3.8 (out of 4) cum, 750 verbal GRE. Substantial resume of completed commissions in electro-acoustic music. Substantial experience teaching computers to secretaries in law offices and other places. I goofed on my timing to enter grad school. It is difficult to get in at mid-year, but I graduate next week from the U. of Hawai'i. I want to stay in school, because in that environment I could continue to spend most of my time really working on music. I know it's a long shot, but I thought maybe there might be a school out there that happens to need an experienced and innovative grad student on short notice. Any feedback would be appreciated. Will ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 09:56:43 EST From: aguiar Subject: Guitar's players Hi all. I'm looking for a list of guitar's players. Can you help me? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 03:05:24 GMT From: Paul Trunfio Subject: I need help in chosing a synth... Hi folks... I am new to this group. I am trying to compose some orchestral works but find that my current studio setup is woefully inadequate. My setup consists right now of a MAC IIci 8/80 with Vision 1.43 software, 1 in 3 out general MIDI interface, Yamaha PSR-47 controller, Yamaha TG-33 (16 part multitimbral 32 note polyphonic synth), a Yamaha RY10 drum machine, and a Technics tape dec. I was looking to add either the E-mu Proteus II/Orchestral for about 750... Though I am willing to spend a bit more for good orchestral sounds... but not too much more (I'd like to spend under 1000)... any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Best wishes, Paul ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 09:44:43 -0500 From: Dean Keith Subject: Reply to I need help in chosing a synth... Paul, >I was looking to add either the E-mu Proteus II/Orchestral for about >750... > >Though I am willing to spend a bit more for good orchestral sounds... >but not too much more (I'd like to spend under 1000)... > >any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. In my opinion, the E-Mu Proteus/XR Orchestral is about the best bang for the buck. Try to get the XR version (Expanded RAM) so you can add lotsa patches of your own. I've had my Proteus 1/XR since they first came out, and still have not filled the free sound slots. Counting the factory sounds there are 384 patch locations. The only thing other (newer) rack units have over the Proteus series is internal effects. In many cases this is more of a crutch to cover up bad samples than a great feature. (has anyone listened to the dry, raw samples of an M1 --- YUCK!) A Proteus (Orchestral) and a cheap reverb unit can sound like a full-blown Orchestra if everything is scored nicely. ______________________________________________________________________________ Dean Keith dkeith@tarleton.edu Tarleton State University Stephenville, Texas, USA ______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 15:56:00 EST From: Pedro Hernando Rozo Mora Subject: i want characteristics desirables of synthetizers I have a yamaha PSR-600 This keyboard can to do sequences in five tracks, can to record in five tracks ( melodies), moreover have one hundred instruments and one hundred rithms; i want to work with a synthethizer another keyboard what have more instruments ans spec ial effects. My PSR-600 have a cost of $1000 dolars in Colombia, i want know other keyboards (synthetizers or other forms of to work with more instruments) and your aproxima te cost ?? I want to know if exist a synthetizer which have a cost less than $1500 dolars. Thanks Pedro Rozo PROZO@iteccol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1993 09:26:05 GMT From: Philip Jones Subject: Re : i want characteristics desirables of synthetizers Pedro wrote > My PSR-600 have a cost of $1000 dolars in Colombia, i want know other keyboards (synthetizers or other forms of to work with more instruments) and your aproxima te cost ?? I want to know if exist a synthetizer which have a cost less than $1500 dolars. > !!!! Does anyone one know the exchange rate of $US to $columbian or Pounds UK to $ Columbian. If you do, maybe you could help, then again??? Phil Jones (pj02@ee.ic.ac.uk) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993 12:31:59 AST From: Howard Harawitz Subject: Looking for SY99 Editor/librarian for PC/Windows Hi All - I'm looking for a good Windows based editor/librarian for my SY99. In adverts I see quite a few multipurpose editor librarians which mention facilities for the SY77 but NOT the SY99. A multipurpose editor/librarian would be useful because I have also have other equipment. Thanks Howard Harawitz =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Howard Harawitz harawitz@fox.nstn.ns.ca 25 Doyle Street Bedford, Nova Scotia B4A 1K4 Canada ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 14:24:45 -0700 From: Ed Castaneda Subject: MIDI KEYBOARD AND MIDI FILES Hi: I am looking for and address where I can get some "MIDI" stuff to run on my PC know know OOPS for some direction from some of you music mensas Thanks ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 10:18:26 EST From: Keith Maynard - CCC Subject: Multimedia kits Hi people, I am in the market for a multimedia upgrade kit. Do any of you have any preferences for CD-ROM drives and sound cards? Any horror stories? I have seen a Sony 31A-03 double-spin for ~185.00 and a panasonic 562 for ~200.00 also double-spin. Does any one have experience with either of these? reliability,performance etc? I would like the cost of the kit to stay below 500.00 (ouch) so I'd like to hear from some of the users out there. Are there any parameters I should examine in helping me to select? eg access speed and data-throughput. I have read one review on the FUSION-16 upgrade kit from Mediavision in the Oct 93 Computer Shopper. Thanks for your assistance. Keith Maynard ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 14:44:00 EST From: "DRCV06::GRAHAM" Subject: New list member with questions. I would really like to start by asking about seven hundred questions, but I will spare both of us. Is there an FAQ? The intro to the list mailed to me after I subscribed mentioned some useful programs and other things that were available online, but didn't mention if they were available fia ftp and if so, how to get to them. I will ask one question now, and probably more later. Are there any blind folk on the list? I am blind and want to make my IBM compatible pc with a Pro Audio Studio 16 card talk to my Roland piano and D-110. So far, every program my wife has read the description of to me is notation based. I will have a DECTalk card in my computer to it can speak text on the screen to me, but I need a good, powerful sequencing program that does NOT use music notation, since the poor speech synthesizer won't speak it. Plus, if it were a DOS based program, that would be even better since the text to speech programs don't really speak windows very well yet. Up to this point, I have been using an MMT-8 because it is sort of friendly to the blind, not very friendly, can't edit, but at least, I can lay down multiple tracks and let it do some work for me. My wife got me a Roland MC-50, but it is impossible to use without seeing it, anyone want it? [grin] So, I'm hoping that there is some nice, non-notation based sequencing software out there for me to use. All ideas, save for deep sixing the gear, are highly welcomed. Thanks for being patient with a new member. Free beer at my place tonight. Dan Graham ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1993 16:13:00 -0800 From: Todd S DeWeerd Subject: Non-linear editing I just bought a Roland Rap-10 sound card. I can record direct-to-disk with it. Of course I've had some problems I'd like to discuss with others who have the card. I'm having problems with the wave-composer in that it will not play each wave exactly where I place it in the composition. Anyone have any experience with this card and this problem? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993 21:27:32 CST From: C356HUM Subject: Re: Q: tips on writing pop-style music In article <00975D95.5C569F00.11276@lp.musc.edu> JOHN ALBERT PINION writes: >I have been wanting to ask this question of those who regularly compose >on their midi systems. I have a modest mac-based sequencer system with >which I can write some pretty groovy loops (I go for a simple catholic-pop >style). OK, fine; but then, I don't know where to go from there for a nice >bridge, say, or other sections. I can't seem to retain enough of the first >part, while adding something different for variety to extend the song out. >Each section usually comes out like a totally different song. > >Maybe I ought to go look at some books on musical theory and song writing, >but if there are some easy tips you can share, I would very much appreciate it. > >How do you (yes, you, personally) go from a good loop, to a >whole song thats neither too monotonous or too disconnected? >Are there some particular tricks that you use? Some of the >stuff I've done that I like the best was totally free form, but sequence >over-dubbed beginning-to-end several times. But then, that's jazz, not pop >music. I like the idea of effeciency of order and structure in >modern classic pop, and want to do stuff in that style. So far, the best >I've got are jammin' grooves, but it takes a _damn_ good 4 measures to make >a song ('course it's done more and more these days). There's a lot to >be said for a quality loop, but then, that's another mail message... > >Thanks for sharing your expertese and experience!! >. >. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 17:47:11 -0600 From: Kenneth Bain Subject: Re: Request for Info We are trying to locate a copy of an old music composer program originally written for a Commodore computer. We have some music written on that program that we are trying to unlock. The program was called MusicWriter by BankStreet and was apparently developed by Bank Street School of Education and sold by a company in Northbrook, IL (long since gone out of business) Also if anyone can suggest other places we might post this inquiry. Thanks. Ken Bain, Director Searle Center for Teaching Excellence Northwestern University 627 Dartmouth Place Evanston, IL 60208-4175 Tel: (708) 467-2338 FAX: (708) 467-2273 email: bainkr@nwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 08:50:54 MET From: Schuster Richard Subject: sysex hi! could someone please tell me what exactly is SYSEX? thanx in advance, Ricci!! ********************************************************** *Richard Schuster * *University of Innsbruck, Austria * * * *network adress: * *schuste2@sowi-nov.uibk.ac.at * ********************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 16:48:55 LCL From: Anthony Arviola Subject: Re: sysex hi! could someone please tell me what exactly is SYSEX? thanx in advance, Ricci!! I'll take a stab at it. Sysex is System Exclusive information with is generally unique or exclusive to the musical device or controller. For example, my K4 can dump its sysex which defines the ADSR settings, the waves that it uses with each patch, the filters, etc. This information would not mean anything to a JV-80. The way a device knows the information is for them is that there is a byte which tells the device that a sysex message will follow. A vendor id is sent (each vendor has its own id number or byte), then a device id is sent (each of the vendor's devices has an id number or byte value). At this point the device knows whether the information is for them or not. If it is for them, they continue to gather the data. Generally, a control string of a few bytes is sent. For example, the bytes 0A 60 55 or what ever may tell the maching that the data represents the settings for a single patch and the data should be loaded into that patch. Or it could be a request string with says, sent me the data contained in patch 55. These things are usually outlined in the midi device's manual. Corrections are welcome. I hope this helped. Tony ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 09:36:34 GMT From: Philip Jones Subject: Sysex hi! could someone please tell me what exactly is SYSEX? thanx in advance, Ricci!! Basically, SYSEX is any information you want. SysEx is defined by each manufacturer, who each have their own identifier which heads the SysEx message. What ever follows that is upto the manufacturer. If you had a toaster that could receive MIDI you could have a SysEx message to tell it how long to brown the toast and that would be allowable within the MIDI spec. I think. So there you go Phil Jones(pj02@ee.ic.ac.uk) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1993 17:09:29 EST From: Saul Smaizys Subject: vintage elctronic music I'm interested in collecting and trading recordings of classic electronic music from the 40's thru 70's on disc or tape. I would also like to exchange information on artists and composers of that era. E-mail to saxtherpay@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 22:45:58 GMT From: ANDY MCDONOUGH Subject: warranty up? sorry...probably the wrong forum for this, too. > found in someone's garage. spiders, feathers, the works... The highlight > was seeing that the date that the circuit board had been assembled was > written in pencil: 12/2/73 -- exactly 20 years before... gee! did you remember to send in the registration card? back in '73 i bet it wasn't a 90 day warranty either :-) ...andy ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************