AXIS for Bohlen-Pierce Scale (Part 6)

[LieutenantSkittles]

Thanx for showing this stuff

[iluvvsmp2]

I am soooo fascinated by microtonality, I wish there was some way I could compose music with it

[iluvvsmp2]

+ macrotonal music for that matter

[Synapsenkitzler]

while listrening to your song i must think to the music of Frank Zappa and Mike Patton.

[PennilessandTired]

i can sing the lambda mode, took me a lot of years to sing microtonally

[sporopeza01]

Hi miselaineeous, I first heard this instrument when Jordan Rudess gave the demo on how to operate it. Did you see it? Anyway your music opened my mind.

[yoursaxman]

This whole series is fascinating! Thank you! Playing sax i find it's pliable enough that i will sometimes happen on notes in between the ones in the 12 tone scale. Looping them i can erase them if they don't "work". I posted a video response called "Morning Fog" which features some unintentional macroscale found by using a Digitech Whammy and looping pedalboard.

[darkbarrage99]

lovely voice, this sounds so alien! i love it!

[Xoltoath]

You should check out the "Tonal Plexus", a microtonal keyboard with 211 keys per octave. It allows for this type of tuning, as well as ANY other perceivable microtonal scale.

[HelixMusic]

I think I'm in love. With you, the scale and your cat. Incredible videos.

[miselaineeous]

Thank you! Do you think your ears got used to the strange tuning after a while? If so, I'd be curious to know how long that took.

[olirain]

that song is so cool and weird. It's like im not used to hear that but i like it too. good job. very original.

[olirain]

your name sounds like the way i say miscellencellous

[Jinpagee]

The language/theory of music is still fairly Greek to me, but the sounds are another story. Very beautiful and ethereal song, and interesting to listen to the theory ... even if I mostly don't understand. Thank you!

[drzvook]

you made it cool!

this is an awesome demo. i wish c thru would send me an axis to play with.

[Swarflee]

This scale feels so surreal. I love it! I am going to tune my kalimba to this scale and have some fun with digital delay :-)

[Yakshinian]

Very amazing. It does sound unusually beautiful. The song seems to have a sort of lost feel. Perhaps I am not used to the tuning or maybe its because it doesn't resolve to an octave. Thank you a lot! I will play with this scale!

[areciosmith]

Honestly i thought it was going to sound worse. You have a nice Bjork aproach.

[antiotio]

I wonder if Zappa has ever used this scale ??? ... U great miselaineeous !! And u beautiful i i love ur voice ... Tv should get some good musicians like u and me to be rockstars ...So u made that instrument by yourself ... GREAT GREAT GREAT !!! INSPIRING ME !

[codecxo]

SHEEEEET Girlfriend! You are awesome!

[fishwithoutwings]

mp3 of the song? What's it called?

[miselaineeous]

It's called "Love Song" and there is a link to it in the info section. Click on that link and then go to the MEDIA section to find the music.

[lAccorEl]

see this : watch?v=_nC_KYs7IQU

[TrustyShellback]

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As a music minor at SCSU (1972-1976) in New Haven CT, I took a course called "experimental" music. The content was very similar to your discussion.

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[emilygclarinet]

Is it difficult to sing in this scale?

[miselaineeous]

Yes, it is difficult until you're REALLY used to the tuning. I've always had a guide tone playing in my ear when I record BP vocals, usually with a sustained string sound, so that I can make sure I'm singing exactly the right pitch. But in general, when you're singing along with the music in the background, your ears will "lock on" to the tuning, whatever it may be. It's actually difficult to sing 12 notes per octave to microtonal background music.. so it's all relative. :)

[alexPi77]

Hello! Speaking of keyboards, what do you think of the Continuum Fingerboard? Not very accurate for tuning? Impossible to play polyphonically?

[firehandszarb]

search youtube for "jordan rudess". Apparently the continuum is designed to allow for acurate intonation while allowing for smooth slides. I think you can play chords on it too.

[coastotoast]

Cool series of instructional videos IMHO, well done. Have you ever been in touch with Wendy Carlos? What does she think about the Axis and the use of the Bohlen-Pierce scale with such an innovative keyboard layout?

[miselaineeous]

I've never met Wendy.. I hear she's in seclusion and it's hard for anyone at all new to meet her. She's one of my heros though!

[DuncanGuy1]

Speaking of remapping, apart from my previous MidiPipe suggestion, once you come up with the final Axis layout you can consider building your frequency map directly with Magic Microtuner. I did that in some cases to remap a standard keyboard layout with different scales, takes some time for a whole 128-note map but it's not complex because in Microtuner you can simply drag&drop frequencies from an open window to another.

[miselaineeous]

I'm going to try to talk them into making a circular Axis, so that one can use it with the hexagons either way (plus it's necessary to turn a lot while playing it, so a circle makes sense anyway) then come up with some preset re-mappings for several different tunings that they can have programmed in there. The microtonal niche of customers would be small, but loyal, if there was a new type of keyboard that was that flexible!

[nonoctave]

Hey Elaine, thanks so much for putting this whole series together. It's the coolest series on youtube ever.

There's not much detail in the youtube video encoding, so the details in the key map templates are indistinct. IWould it be possible to put a scan of your two different BP array mapping templates on your web site? I'd love to see them more clearly. (I did download & read your fine BP paper.) I think I do understand the layout of the first from the description, but not the one at the end.

[nonoctave]

Actually, never mind that, I got it figured out by freezing a frame. I've put together both mapping diagrams.

[miselaineeous]

oh, ok! I'm in between scanners right now. I have one boxed up that I'm about to return.. and my camera broke, so I'm in need of some new technology. :)

[touchingstoves]

this is exciting!

[miselaineeous]

yeah it is! I hope I can get my grubby hands on another Axis after I give this one to berklee (that was part of the deal when it was lent to me..)

I've been meaning to comment to you that I like your idea of getting musical performance back into the hands of non-musicians.. with your toy instruments. i made this thing called a chaos controller where math generates the notes, but the person controls phrasing, tempo and dynamics.. so they really feel like they are playing. it broke though. :(