Dronal improvisation on Tonal Plexus microtonal keyboard

[TheUnforgivent]

Hello. Is there a way to use the Tonal Plexus with things like VSTs to make it sound like true microtonal instruments? Thanks

[nphony]

@TheUnforgivent I don't know what you mean "true microtonal instruments" but the TPX is just a MIDI controller, so it works with plugins. In this video, I was running through VST instruments. Only trouble is, it needs to be set for multichannel pitch-bend-independent — and so that means a bunch of set-up and duplicate VSTs, one for each channel. A few plugins work without this though, like PianoTeq

[TheUnforgivent]

@nphony Well, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you very much

[sirvidia]

couldn't you just use a long ribbon controller and play fretless to get any microtone you want?

[nphony]

@sirvidia Yes you could, but then you couldn't be as precise as easily. With a ribbon controller (or better: the Haken Continuum), there are many advantages over the TPX actually. But only with the TPX can you jump back and forth to such a number of very specific pitches so reliably. More significantly, though *this* video was essentially monophonic, this keyboard can achieve polyphonic precisely-tuned chords that a ribbon could never quite do. See my other videos to see what I mean.

[sirvidia]

@nphony yeah, chordally it totally makes sense

[Hyronious]

It looks like lego.

[Guakingo]

Microtonal piano music just sounds badly out of tune, but with this thing you add individual microtonal notes here and there which makes this into a much more interesting musical statement. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[nphony]

@Guakingo Thanks for the comment! Yeah, there are problems with limited microtonal piano. If one is restricted to only 12 pitches per octave, there isn't the flexibility to have contrast and dynamic tuning like with this keyboard. But some microtonal piano sounds good to me, although I know what you mean about some of it sounding odd and out of tune. Sometimes I like odd just for the oddity, but microtones can sound perfectly musical and acceptable in the right context.

[Raakim322]

Great improv too

[nphony]

@Raakim322 Thanks for the comment! I hope to get around to recording much more involved stuff in the near future...

[Raakim322]

Whoa thats awesome I want one

[Powereese]

So stupid and useless thing... Nowadays there are pads you know?

[nphony]

@Powereese By pads I assume you mean like x-y pads, or you might as well have said ribbon controllers... Of course this thing was invented (and I bought mine) prior to the new touch-screen tablet computers. It's true that a lot of the neat microtonal and expressive tuning stuff is possible with those things. What they can't do, however, is get a wide range of very precise pitches on the fly. Try leaping to a tuned harmonic seventh on a pad...

[nphony]

@Powereese The irony of making these videos and playing this thing is that the more normal the music, even with subtle tuning details, the more listeners won't see the point of this crazy thing; but the more I go out of my way to make its unique features really apparent, the more some people will just say the music sounds bizarre/bad. This video is a compromise on that continuum. Some of what I played could be done with other tools, not all of it though. A (valid) question is does it matter...

[Flummingbird]

WANTS!!!!!



[cbbjork]

I love it, thanks! really enjoyed the video explaining it too... congrats!

[MEHpewpewMEH]

wtf.

[1bol1]

LEGO?

[nphony]

@1bol1 Looks like Lego. No official connection. Also, to be clear: I'm not the inventor or designer, just an owner.

[thebanez]

wtf looks like legos! lol thing is awesome

[acequiaduo]

me di cuente por las uñas de la mano derecha...

[acequiaduo]

toca la guitarra?



[nphony]

@acequiaduo si, toco la guitarra. Algo dia voy a hacer mas videos con guitarra. Soy un maestro de guitarra (mira a mi sitio web: wolftune.com) Perdon mi español imperfecto.

[brylidan]

@nphony imperfecto? , se entiende perfectamente :O

[Petrolianzoolbar]

Wow, I just discovered microtonal tunings, and this stuff is great, my brain is really digging the new rules :)

[shautora]

Hmm, sounds very Indian in the beginning, but then not as much later

[LikaLaruku]

I was playing this at the same time as listening to "Key of Awesome's" parody of Katey Parry's ET, they surprisingly sound really interesting together.

[Jim0i0]

Like!