I was pleased recently when Tonal Plexus owner Aaron Wolf alerted me to Automat, a free Audio Unit synthesizer for Mac OSX which has implemented full dynamic retuning support for Tonal Plexus TPX keyboards, as well as .tun 1.0 support for compatibility with CSE and conventional keyboards.

Tonal Plexus owners can open Automat as a plugin in any AU host application (GarageBand, Logic, DP, Reaper, etc.) and tune it up dynamically with the Plexus on-the-fly, without loading any tuning tables at all. This is the same GM microtuning functionality implemented in the commercial software Pianoteq which I’ve been raving about lately.

The same is true for TBX1 owners. You can send MIDI out from your controller to TBX1, and send that TUNED output to Automat (or Pianoteq), for dynamic retuning without tuning tables.

Or, you can retune your conventional keyboard in Automat using tuning tables; just use CSE to create your tunings and export them as .tun files to the following location:

~/Library/Audio/Presets/alphakanal/Automat1/tunings

(where ~ means YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName)

Then just select your tuning in Automat, and you’re good to go.

Note for U-PLEX users: you need to have a serious AU host such as Logic, DP, or Reaper in order to use Automat or Pianoteq as AU plugin synths for dynamic retuning. Apple’s entry-level sequencer, GarageBand, does not allow you to select the MIDI input; instead, all MIDI inputs are active. As a result, U-PLEX won’t produce tuned output in GB; however, TPX keyboards can be used with GB just fine.

It would be great if the .tun 2.0 standard were implemented in Automat, so that .msf would be supported, allowing U-PLEX to be used with Automat in GarageBand. Until then, Mac U-PLEX users should invest a little more in a professional AU host.

Fast on the heels of completing full tuning support for Tonal Plexus keyboards, Modartt has just announced a new, more affordable version of Pianoteq called Pianoteq Play, selling for 99 Euros, or about 120 USD (about one third the price of the full version of Pianoteq).

This version does come with some limitations, so the first question to answer is: does it support all the tuning functions of the full version? The answer is: YES! You get full Tonal Plexus compatibility – on the fly retuning with no tuning tables necessary, as well as Scala .scl and .kbm compatibility with CSE (Custom Scale Editor) software for retuning conventional keyboards.

What you don’t get are advanced controls over the sound of the instrument, but if you are simply after the sound of a piano, absence of those controls should not bother you in the least. I highly recommended this new version of Pianoteq for its tuning capabilities and its affordability. Great work, again, Modartt!

I am very pleased to announce that today Pianoteq from Modartt, with update 3.6.1, becomes the first true-modelling softsynth to be fully compatible with Tonal Plexus keyboards and H-Pi tuning software. I consider this a milestone for my business.

I received notice of the update this morning from Dr. Julien Pommier, developer in charge of Pianoteq tuning functions with whom I have been happy to be in correspondence with for some time now, assisting with beta testing of Pianoteq tuning functions. Previous versions of Pianoteq were compatible with multi-channel GM microtonal output from Tonal Plexus keybaords, but a MIDI note-off issue in Pianoteq caused some pitches to cut out while playing live on a TPX or U-PLEX keyboard. That issue has been resolved in this update, thanks to Julien’s responsiveness, conscientious programming, and his knowledge of and and willingness to dig in to the often quite tricky matters of tuning, for nothing more than the fun and challenge in it; you see, this milestone as I’m calling it was accomplished without any kind of commercial agreement whatsoever, solely a result of mutual interest and enthusiasm. I am really glad to see that Modartt places due importance on this aspect of its software. Please join me in thanking Julien and Modartt for their support.

Plug in a TPX keyboard to your MIDI interface, set Pianoteq to receive TPX TUNED MIDI output, with pitch bend range set to + / - 100 cents, and there you have it - microtonal polyphony, with no tuning tables necessary in Pianoteq! That is the advantage of the GM microtuning method used in TPX keyboards; as long as the receiver knows what to expect, all the tuning tables reside only in the keyboard, so you just plug and play. U-PLEX keyboards work the same way through TPXE or other software; just plug in U-PLEX straight to a USB port, run the tuning software, set Pianoteq to received the TUNED MIDI output from the software, and there it is - microtonal polyphony without any tuning tables whatsoever in Pianoteq. This frees up retuning to be as easy as plugging in, and also allows dynamic retuning on the fly. And the retuning information is General MIDI, so you can route it elsewhere and it will also retune other destinations correctly. Pianoteq also has a MIDI file recorder which means you can make microtonal MIDI files directly, which can go directly in email and on the web, something that is simply impossible to do with other microtuning methods. Pianoteq is the first mainstream commercial softsynth to fully implement GM microtuning compatibility.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pianoteq, let me tell you a bit about it. It not only physically models acoustic grand pianos, but also electronic pianos, rhodes, period fortepianos, harpsichords, clavichords, and others. It has tremendous and mind-boggling customizability, flexibility and control of timbre, and other rather obvious practical advantages over sampled instruments (which hog disk space and slow down your system); Pianoteq exerts an incredibly small draw on your computer’s resources. Find out more, try out Pianoteq for yourself, or just go ahead and buy it - it is more than worth its price!

Please also join me in encouraging other developers to follow Modartt’s example. If there is another softsynth or other software you would like to be compatible with Tonal Plexus keyboards and H-Pi software, please contact those developers and give them a link to this PDF compatibility document which has everything that’s needed (also available on the downloads page) including my contact information so that we can get the ball rolling:

http://www.h-pi.com/additionals/TPXSoftInstGuide.pdf

The more voices express a need for tuning control, the more developers will listen. We need to work together! Thanks again, Modartt!

Formerly known as MidwestMicrofest, the concert organization now called untwelve is a kindred spirit, devoted to music which goes beyond the standard 12 tones. Untwelve was founded in 2007 by Aaron Krister Johnson and Christopher Bailey. Its concert activities are primarily in the Chicago area, with some affiliated events in Champaign-Urbana through composer Jacob Barton (of udderbot and 17-tone piano project fame) and composer/guitarist Andrew Heathwaite, who have established OddMusic, an entity now thriving at the UIUC Independent Media Center. [Devoted readers of this blog (both of you) may recall a previous entry about my lending some prototypes to Oddmusic.]

During my years in Illinois since the inception of my business, I had traveled to Chicago for several untwelve events, one of which included a performance of my Invention in 7ET (blog entry here). At the end of 2009, I was invited by Aaron Johnson to serve as a board member with untwelve. Because the organization is seeking non-profit status, I suggested that I serve on the board only in advisory capacity, considering my commercial interests in microtonality, and this was agreed upon as the best relationship to establish. I received word today that my bio has been added to the untwelve board members webpage. Thanks, guys; it’s good to be working with you!

One of the first shipping Tonal Plexus keyboards I built was purchased by the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where it is now used by guitarist David Fiuczynski and his students. I recently made some upgrades and improvements to this instrument. The upgrades included new firmware for the chips, new red front and back pieces for the body, countersinking the screws on the finishing strips, and new top panels for the keys.

New instruments come with all these improvements and refinements. The early keyboards like the one purchased by Berklee had some issues with the top panels, around the keys themselves, because the material was thin and flexible, and on some instruments this caused some warping of the surface; this was one of those instruments that had a problem. I show the former panel in the video, and you can see how flexible it is. Panels on currently shipping keyboards are thick and rigid, so warping is not a problem anymore. The firmware upgrade improves fader response and adds some useful options for how MIDI banks and patches are handled in presets. The other improvements are basically cosmetic, although the countersunk screws do change a minor tactile element of the design.

If you own one of the early Tonal Plexus keyboards and you would like to have these upgrades and improvements, please contact me to discuss it; I would be happy to give your instrument an overhaul and I know you would appreciate the difference.

After doing the work on Berklee’s keyboard, before shipping it back, I recorded this little video in which I point out the improvements, and then demonstrate something interesting about dominant 7th chords in Just Intonation.

Dominant 7th chords contain a diminished 5th between the 3rd and 7th, often called a tritone, although tritones are, strictly speaking, always augmented 4ths, not diminished 5ths (tritone = 3 tones = 3 whole tones in a row e.g. C to D to E to F# = C : F# = augmented 4th). The misnomer is indicative of the way pitches are named enharmonically in 12ET, where for example F# and Gb are the same pitch. In 12ET, two dominant chords can share the same pitches between their 3rds and 7ths, swapping roles of those pitches between the chords, because an augmented 4th and a diminished 5th use the same exact pitches. This can’t happen in Just Intonation. In Just Intonation, a diminished 5th will never be an augmented 4th. This video shows how in JI either the 3rd or 7th can be used as a common tone, but not both. One or the other common tones can be kept in a dominant 7th chord whose root is either an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth away, since those intervals are not the same in Just Intonation. Make sense?

Note: the captions in this video introduced blips into the audio for some reason and I couldn’t fix it; sorry about that!