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Terpstra Keyboard

terpstrakeyboard.com

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#71

For those who haven't ever gotten into microtonal and other non-standard tuned music before, it's a really interesting space. I would highly recommend checking out Kyle Gann's album Hyperchromatica ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbT9oRbu3h8&list=PL1IsImnKxK... ), which has a pretty wide variety of pieces/genres, showing the potential of nonstandard tuning. It takes a bit to get used to it but there are brand new c…

Technically Bach was writing for microtonal music - his well tempered clavier was written to show how songs need to be played in the correct keys to sound right. He was against the systems of the day where some keys could not be used, but his preferred system had each key usable but sounding different. Playing them on a modern equal tempered instrument fails to capture what he was trying to show.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#72
post #52
post #19

This would be great for Klingon Opera :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LjcBv-OWtQ

Wow, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought that such a deep dive into Klingon music theory exists. This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Indeed, it's probably the geekiest confluence going! No worries, glad you enjoyed it.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#73
post #56
post #44

Now the Lumatone https://www.lumatone.io/ Mike Battaglia plays Scarborough Fair in 31-tone equal temperament https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJKB1_gvhLE

I wish I had bought a few Axis-49 controllers when they were in production. They were a much more reasonable $500 at the time. https://www.c-thru-music.com/cgi/?page=prod_axis-49

You might be interested in the Hexboard. Basically a mini-lumatone for ~$500; main downside is no velocity sensitivity.

https://shapingthesilence.com/tech/hexboard-midi-controller/

I'm quite happy with mine, and play it with the Wicki-Hayden layout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicki%E2%80%93Hayden_note_layo...

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#74
post #46
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An organ pedalboard MIDI controller would be an off-the-shelf solution albeit expensive. You could hook it up to a drum rack in a DAW in order to remap the pedals to a useful layout. With a foot activated MIDI controller the number of keys will always be rather limited. Therefore, I think that the virtual layout should be customized to the music you play or even for each song. E.g. you could only map notes of a certa…

Organ pedalboards require sitting down and so are not really what I want. The number of keys is the real problem - I don't want to be playing a single note in one octave, I want to play my chord progression and that means I need separate buttons for the major, minor, 7th (which 7th...) for the chords that go with the song.

A medium number of keys could work out by using a custom layout for each song as many songs don't use too many chords. Similar to tuning timpani for each song.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#75

For those who haven't ever gotten into microtonal and other non-standard tuned music before, it's a really interesting space. I would highly recommend checking out Kyle Gann's album Hyperchromatica ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbT9oRbu3h8&list=PL1IsImnKxK... ), which has a pretty wide variety of pieces/genres, showing the potential of nonstandard tuning. It takes a bit to get used to it but there are brand new c…

Zheanna Erose’s channel is a goldmine of microtonal music and discussion thereof.

https://youtube.com/@zheannaerose

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#76
post #61

Fun to mess around with. The qwerty keyboard maps nicely (for the default tuning you gave anyway). I found I wanted to be able to hold a chord on the keyboard and play a melody with the mouse, but the system only responds to either the keyboard xor the mouse. Any chance it could be made to work with both at the same time?

I made a web microtonal keyboard a while ago which does support this! different format though

https://www.microharmonic.com

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#77
post #52
post #19

This would be great for Klingon Opera :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LjcBv-OWtQ

Wow, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought that such a deep dive into Klingon music theory exists. This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

oh, not quite, it seems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5vVskOCGsk

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#78

For those who haven't ever gotten into microtonal and other non-standard tuned music before, it's a really interesting space. I would highly recommend checking out Kyle Gann's album Hyperchromatica ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbT9oRbu3h8&list=PL1IsImnKxK... ), which has a pretty wide variety of pieces/genres, showing the potential of nonstandard tuning. It takes a bit to get used to it but there are brand new c…

Since this is HN, I'll point out that algorithmic music and microtonality go especially well together. In fact, shameless plug: I wrote an entire album this way, and it's open source:

https://github.com/pac-dev/AmbientGardenAlbum

While it's technically completely microtonal, I'll admit that most of the tones closely resemble conventional 12-tone equal temperament. Maybe that makes it more approachable, but I fully intend to go harder in that regard for the next album.

Re: Terpstra Keyboard

#80
post #77
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought that such a deep dive into Klingon music theory exists. This is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

oh, not quite, it seems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5vVskOCGsk

Oh man, what a legend this guy is. Using an ambiguity in Klingon lore to explore yet another micro-tonal system is just incredible. And he profoundly apologizes for an off-by-one error he made in the previous video ... as if that hasn't happened to most of us :-)
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