Search found 47 matches

Return to advanced search

Re: Tuning a keyboard instrument.

In Bach's time there were two tuning fundamentals, one for the choir and another for the orchestra, known repectively as "Chorton" and "Kammerton" (choir tone and chamber tone). If you care to visit bach-digital.de you will find many (most?) of Bach's existing scores in their ori...
by SysExJohn
04 May 2023 09:22
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Tuning a keyboard instrument.
Replies: 13
Views: 5184

Re: Tuning a keyboard instrument.

Hi Hugh, Yup! You've now got it and all you've written about thirds and fifths etc. is quite correct. Of course, with fixed pitch instruments like piano and organ but also with most woodwind and brass and the dreaded accordion and harp we are stuck with the tuning faults of E.T. Most people accomoda...
by SysExJohn
17 Apr 2023 16:58
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Tuning a keyboard instrument.
Replies: 13
Views: 5184

Re: Tuning a keyboard instrument.

Thanks for the reference Hugh. It's interesting, at least it is to me, that it was probably only later in the 20th century that we actually started using E.T. When an academic started testing Broadwood pianos, that were supposed to be in Equal Temperament, he found that they were not. They were clos...
by SysExJohn
17 Apr 2023 12:06
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Tuning a keyboard instrument.
Replies: 13
Views: 5184

Re: Why Does Music Only Use 12 Different Notes?

Ever wondered why we tune our keyboard instruments the way we do? What exactly does a piano tuner do? Eh? Why would I do that? Hasn't it always been this way? No, not by a long chalk. To explore this we need to go back many, many centuries. To Pythagoras to be precise who, we understand, discovered ...
by SysExJohn
06 Oct 2020 20:45
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Why Does Music Only Use 12 Different Notes?
Replies: 5
Views: 4275

Re: Why can't I read music?

Like your granddaughter, I learned to play the oboe by understanding what combinations of holes to open or to close with a note on a score. That seems like a hundred years ago, but is actually only fifty! I didn't persevere, and now wish I had, but I'd like to play the keyboard a bit now I'm retired...
by SysExJohn
16 Sep 2017 10:54
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Why can't I read music?
Replies: 16
Views: 15179

Re: Windows 10

"Shortest amount of time possible" Hmmm! That could still be a long time. Steinberg (it seems) is still having trouble getting their drivers working with Win10, from what I've heard. I greatly respect the developers who work at this operating system interface level and particularly those i...
by SysExJohn
02 Aug 2015 09:25
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Windows 10
Replies: 16
Views: 5292

Re: Windows 10

I take a similar view to Tony. In my experience there are usually loads of bugs in the first release of ALL operating systems I've ever touched. (I worked for more than 30 years in the computer industry, 20 of which were for a major UK manufacturer of mainframes and PCs.) Before 'jumping in' I would...
by SysExJohn
28 Jul 2015 09:17
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Windows 10
Replies: 16
Views: 5292

Re: Live Music

Oh dear,

Poor Sibelius, rotating in his grave. :roll: :shock: :oops: :cry: :( :?

Put a bit more about tuning in the music theory section, Mike. :wink:

I'll look into why you can't get that file a bit later, Brian.
Currently very busy cooking a late lunch.

Regards,
John
by SysExJohn
05 Apr 2015 12:45
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Hi Brian, Octal is the maximum number of combinations using just three binary digits. 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111. nought to seven. Early computers had 6 bit characters rather than eight bit bytes. With eight bit bytes we halve them for a 'nybble' then we use hexadecimal to count to 16. I...
by SysExJohn
04 Apr 2015 18:03
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Tuning and temperament.

Ever wondered why we tune our keyboard instruments the way we do? What exactly does a piano tuner do? Eh? Why would I do that? Hasn't it always been this way? No, not by a long chalk. To explore this we need to go back many, many centuries. To Pythagoras to be precise who, we understand, discovered ...
by SysExJohn
04 Apr 2015 17:08
 
Forum: Music Theory
Topic: Tuning and temperament.
Replies: 0
Views: 3012

Re: Live Music

Hi Tony, Brian and John, Well, it's normal. I suppose a career devoted to programming in machine code and assembler, then on to data communications protocol analysis and reprogramming has really warped my mind. I have to admit that not many people understood me in the computer industry either. I sup...
by SysExJohn
04 Apr 2015 16:13
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Hi Tony, We were both 'composing' at the same time it seems. Absolutely, NOT equal temperament, Tony. But that was what was thought originally. Bach knew of equal temperament and disliked it we have discovered from existing documents from the time. It is very, very difficult to tune ET by ear accura...
by SysExJohn
04 Apr 2015 10:35
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Hi Brian, Far travelled? Perhaps. There was a period in my life of about 18 months where I had a contract with InMarSat (a satellite launching company which was recently in the news over its tracking of flight MH370). I wrote a couple of courses for them about their latest (at the time) technology a...
by SysExJohn
03 Apr 2015 15:37
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Ah! Yes, WAM. You've forced me to admit that I too have a great love of young Wolfgang. :wink: Some years ago, whilst on a trip to Sydney to deliver some training, I was lucky enough to discover that there was a performance of the Magic Flute at the Opera House, and bought a good ticket at an amazin...
by SysExJohn
03 Apr 2015 09:02
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

A more diverse palate? Maybe! My parents told me that I started enjoying Bach when I was about ten. I imagine that's not entirely normal! Oh, well. They had a recording on a ten inch LP of two of the Brandenburg Concertos which I'd play and play, apparently. That and the Rachmaninov second and the G...
by SysExJohn
02 Apr 2015 16:52
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Wotcher Brian and Mike, (you really can drop the SysEx, it's something I got lumbered with many, many moons ago!) It was my first first hand experience of baroque instruments. Horns without keys but with 'crooks' to tune them to different keys, trumpets that look more like a trombone but without a s...
by SysExJohn
02 Apr 2015 13:20
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: Live Music

Yep! Last Saturday we went (wife and I) to the local (for me) concert in St. Matthew church, Northampton of the Bach B minor Mass. The primary reason (for me) was that the orchestra was using original 18th Century instruments or copies or them. e.g violins have gut strings, not metal. Wooden flutes,...
by SysExJohn
02 Apr 2015 10:15
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Live Music
Replies: 31
Views: 10391

Re: He`s Gone

The Beeb have definitely shot themselves in the foot over this one. Part of his attraction was his complete disregard for what was PC! That's what often made him so funny. I do believe that many people watched the programme deliberately looking for something to take offence with. I wonder if the oth...
by SysExJohn
25 Mar 2015 17:58
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: He`s Gone
Replies: 6
Views: 2335

Re: New Musical Instrument: 500 Years In The Making!

Fascinating stuff, and rather like a viola da gamba in tone. I often wonder, when making this, why he didn't go for split keys so that he could have played sharps properly sharp and flats correctly flat. I imagine that might have made the mechanism overly complex though. ;-) How too is it tuned I wo...
by SysExJohn
24 Mar 2015 10:59
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: New Musical Instrument: 500 Years In The Making!
Replies: 2
Views: 1667

Re: Happy-Birthday.

That wouldn't work for me ... 86!
In the not too distant 96, no fank yu.

John.
by SysExJohn
24 Mar 2015 10:50
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Happy-Birthday.
Replies: 11
Views: 3293

Re: Happy-Birthday.

Many Happy Returns of the Day Mike.

Hope it's a good one.

John.
by SysExJohn
23 Mar 2015 11:19
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Happy-Birthday.
Replies: 11
Views: 3293

Re: External sound Card.

... it is however very sensitive to excessively high gain. As a bit of an audio techie, I experimented with several wav to mp3 compressors a while back. The key thing to note when doing a conversion is that all converters I tried seem to push the volume UP on occasion. This means that if your wav f...
by SysExJohn
18 Mar 2015 09:37
 
Forum: Audio Recording
Topic: External sound Card.
Replies: 13
Views: 12132

Re: Hammond Organ Smashed To Pieces

And, what's the betting, that the pillocks leave the mess there for someone else to clear up? Eh!
by SysExJohn
18 Feb 2015 16:29
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Hammond Organ Smashed To Pieces
Replies: 9
Views: 3863

Re: Jacko 83

Happy Birthday Jacko.

Kind regards,
John.
by SysExJohn
06 Nov 2014 11:27
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Jacko 83
Replies: 5
Views: 1988

Re: Acker Bilk RIP

Yes indeed, RIP Acker.

I learned today on the radio that he not only played Stranger on the Shore but wrote it too, for a BBC series for young people! I remember loving it when it came out. It never paled as so many do.

Ah! 1961. What a good year that was for music as I recall.

John.
by SysExJohn
03 Nov 2014 10:36
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Acker Bilk RIP
Replies: 5
Views: 1898

Re: A short history of multi-tracking

Interesting article. I seem to recall that Walter Carlos (as he/she was then) used multi-tracking to create his hit LP 'Switched On Bach' back in the sixties. Of course working with the monophonic Moog Modular and creating polyphonic baroque music would have been impossible without the technique. He...
by SysExJohn
25 Oct 2014 11:44
 
Forum: Multitracking
Topic: A short history of multi-tracking
Replies: 10
Views: 7873

Re: YKE (Steve Selwood's site) Closed Down ....

And the 'oz' is a global moderator on PSR tutorials!
by SysExJohn
02 Sep 2014 16:58
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: YKE (Steve Selwood's site) Closed Down ....
Replies: 20
Views: 6175

Re: YKE (Steve Selwood's site) Closed Down ....

His LinkedIn page is still there.

I know looks can be deceptive, but I asked myself the question I always do "would you buy a used car from this man?"
I'll leave you to guess the answer. ;)

John.
by SysExJohn
31 Aug 2014 09:54
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: YKE (Steve Selwood's site) Closed Down ....
Replies: 20
Views: 6175

Re: 005055490347 .... TAKE NOTE OF THIS NUMBER

Hiya Mike, Yea, I've had a few of these since I returned to the UK. If I have the time, I keep them talking for as long as possible and ask 'dumb' questions and lead them on as much as possible. It's when they get to the bit about calling the Microsoft Support desk to sort out the errors on a premiu...
by SysExJohn
30 Aug 2014 08:18
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: 005055490347 .... TAKE NOTE OF THIS NUMBER
Replies: 7
Views: 3386

Re: Mike is back and feeling good.

So pleased to hear that Mike.

The medication can take a little while to kick in.

Best wishes for the future.

Kind regards,
John.
by SysExJohn
27 Aug 2014 09:10
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Mike is back and feeling good.
Replies: 7
Views: 2732

Re: portable keyboard stool

You might try looking at drummers' stools or 'thrones' as they're often called. They usually need to be dismantled for travelling and, I dare say, are built to take a pounding! ;) Konig and Meyer usually have a wide range of offerings of many things and you might be able to get one direct from Amazo...
by SysExJohn
14 Aug 2014 11:10
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: portable keyboard stool
Replies: 3
Views: 1623

Re: 4:35 am!

Mike Bracchi wrote:Only 'birds' and 'burglars' are up at this time of the morning .....


... and insomniacs.
by SysExJohn
22 Jun 2014 09:45
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: 4:35 am!
Replies: 6
Views: 2777

Re: MIKE under the weather.

Kind regards,
John.
by SysExJohn
10 Jun 2014 10:31
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: MIKE under the weather.
Replies: 44
Views: 13863

Re: Spontaneous Synchronization

And, more recently, this ...

by SysExJohn
16 Sep 2013 14:49
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Spontaneous Synchronization
Replies: 5
Views: 2077

Re: Spontaneous Synchronization

One assumes they're all set to the same bpm.

Otherwise I can't imagine them synchronising ... or would they?
by SysExJohn
14 Sep 2013 15:51
 
Forum: Shooting The Breeze & General Chatter
Topic: Spontaneous Synchronization
Replies: 5
Views: 2077
Next

Return to advanced search