[CAUT] 1/4 tone piano conversion

[Kent Swafford]

Yes, I'm sure there are electronic keyboards out there that can do this.

The name for this is 24 tone-to-the-octave equal temperament, and it  
has a long history, although this is not a particularly interesting  
temperament. I think it keeps coming up because it is so easy to  
conceptualize.

Back in the days of voltage-controlled synthesizers, you just adjusted  
the pot that set the control voltage between the keyboard and  
oscillator(s) and you could get any number of notes in any interval  
you wanted as long as you could settle for equal temperament.

Later, when MIDI came along, this temperament could be set up similar  
to the 2 pianos tuned a quarter-step apart. You could take two  
identical synth modules a quarter-step apart, and then use a computer  
to map a MIDI keyboard to control both synths -- C on the keyboard  
controller would play C on one of the synths and C# would play the C  
on the other synth tuned a quarter-step up and so on.

I mention this mapped keyboard technique because one could take 2  
PianoDisk pianos or 2 Disklaviers, tune them a quarter-step apart, and  
use a controller keyboard and computer to map the controller keyboard  
to play both pianos from one keyboard. (Play half-steps on the  
keyboard and hear quarter-steps from the pianos.)

2 Disklaviers would likely be slightly cheaper than designing and  
building a quarter-step piano.  8^)

I might also suggest trying the technique with a computer and synths,  
because that would be cheap-cheap and would probably show the composer  
that this isn't a very interesting way of approaching microtonal scales.

Kent Swafford



On Dec 3, 2007, at 1:37 PM, Don Mannino wrote:

> I have it on good authority that professional synthesizers can do  
> this,
> realigning the whole keyboard pretty much any way you want.
> Unfortunately the current Kawai 'stage piano' will not do it,  
> because it
> isn't a full synth, just a good digital keyboard with midi controller
> functions.
>
> The more consumer oriented things will allow tuning one octave pretty
> much any way you want, but every octave is then set to the same - so  
> the
> 'C's would all be correct, and then you'd have 1/2 octave of notes up
> until the next C, etc.  Notes C - f+ (F plus 1/4 tone) would be there,
> but F# - b+ would not.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Don Mannino
>