Points of Interest » Musical Instruments

The Pipe Organ of St. Konrad, Aschaffenburg-Strietwald, Germany

ce — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:12:42 +0000

On saturday I had the occasion (but not the time) to play the instrument depicted above. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of its console with traditional stops on either side, as I was in a hurry.

It’s quite an interesting instrument, built in 2007 by Freiburger Orgelbau. The disposition of the stops qualifies the instrument for authentic playing of both baroque and romantic organ music:

I. Main (C–g3)

1. Bordon 16’
2. Prinzipal 8’
3. Gedeckt 8’
4. Flute harmonique 8’
5. Viola da Gamba 8’
6. Octave 4’
7. Gemshorn 4’
8. Superoctave 2′
9. Mixtur 4-5fach 1 1/’3’
10. Trompete 8’

Tremulant

II. Swell (C–g3)
11. Geigenprizipal 8′
12. Rohrgedeckt 8’
13. Salicional 8’
14. Vox coelestis 8’
15. Octav 4’
16. Traversflöte 4’
17. Nasard 2 2/’3’
18. Octavin 2’
19. Terz 1 3/’5’
20. Piccolo 1’
21. Trompette harmonique 8’
22. Hautbois 8’

Tremulant

Pedal (C–f1)
23. Prinzipalbass 16′
24. Subbass 16’
25. Octavbass 8’
26. Gedacktbass 8’
27. Octav 4’
28. Bombarde 16’
29. Trompete 8’

Obviously it is dominated by 8’ stops. Its timbre is rather full and warm instead of brilliant. I hope there will be a second chance for playing it. Here are the stops I’m most interested in:

Prinzipal 8’ – full and warm
Flute harmonique 8’ – one of my all time favorite stops. The length of those pipes is twice the length necessary, while a small drilling in the middle of the length ensures the pipe’s pitch is correct.
Trompete 8’ – not a bawler at all
Vox coelestis 8’ – if you like programming pads with two detuned oscillators on synthesizers, this stop is for you. You will ask “How can I create such a sound on a synth?!?”
Terz 1 3/’5’ – a third. A unique stop. I had absolutely no luck programming it on a synthesizer.
Hautbois 8’ – another lingual stop. Another sound you won’t be able to program on a synth.
Bombarde 16’ – nomen est omen. The right pedal stop for bombastic pieces. Grand Jeux comes to my mind :)

The joy of Synth playing – the main controllers

ce — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:02:44 +0000

Guitarists, violinists, or the players of some woodwind instruments can influence the pitch of the played tones, either to bend the tone or to apply a little vibrato. Piano players can not. Synth enthusiasts can, as most electronic keyboards provide a pitch bender and a modulation controller.

The most common hardware used for those are two separate wheels. The pitch wheel is centered by a spring automatically, while the modulation wheel remains at the position where it was released:

The wheels of a Hammond XB-1 portable organ, besides its drawbars and sound control buttons

Roland keyboards traditionally use a different approach by a combined pitch and modulation lever. Moving it left or right will bend the pitch down- respectively upwards. Pressing it towards the back of the instrument will apply modulation. The lever always is held at its origin position by a spring, e.g. the player cannot leave a little vibrato applied to the sound:

The (in)famous lever of a Roland A-50 MIDI Keyboard Controller

The Roland A-50 MIDI Keyboard Controller I’m still using offers both, the lever and two wheels. This allows the player to chose what suits the situation best. Frankly, I got used to the Roland lever and prefer it over the wheels when playing solos – but this depends on personal taste.

Some keyboards use ribbon controllers. Those are either small stripes (one axis for controlling one parameter only) or pads (two axes to control two different parameters), similar to the touch pads found on notebooks. The default behaviour is that the controller resets itself as soon it was released (»centered by a spring«). Sometimes an additional switch can be used to define whether the controller shall remember the last used position when releasing it (»spring is broken«). The Korg Z1 synthesizer provides both controller types, wheels and pad:

Wheels and pad of a Korg Z1 synthesizer

Other instruments use a joy-stick which can be moved in two axes. The Korg Kronos, for example, uses two of them. The smaller one will keep its position when being released. The second one, mainly used for pitch bending and vibrato, will return to its origin when being released. Here you can see two switches, the main joystick and the ribbon controller of the Korg Kronos synthesizer workstation:

Korg Kronos ribbon controller and joystick

Why am I blogging about those controllers? Because there is a cool video where Fernando Draganici demonstrates the power of the Kronos controllers. In case you are new to synth playing and have wondered how to use controllers, this one can serve you as a tutorial. The final fun starts at 5:50 – don’t miss it :) .

If comment spam wasn’t a problem, I was interested in a poll what other players prefer. Are you still using the wheels as introduced by the Minimoog? How many of us are addicted to Roland’s lever? Who prefers joysticks, and are there musicians using a touch pad all the time? And what about users of iPad controlled instruments?

Plenty of unanswered questions. Enjoy the video :) .

Edit: Here’s a further video, where the usage of the Kronos joystick can be seen e.g. at 6:53.

Klangwelten celebrating its 25th birthday

ce — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:49:53 +0000

Klangwelten, Tollhaus, Karlsruhe

Klangwelten is celebrating its 25th birthday, and we just attended the concert at the Tollhaus in Karlsruhe, where I already heard them two years ago. The event was just marvellous. Park Stickney’s instrument sounded more like a guitar than a harp, the singing of Katajaq (Inuuk) was more than impressive, Enkh Jargal’s singing and playing was just outstanding, Augus Wahyu Rhythm Explosion added liveliness (not to mention the great acoustic bass), and Terrence Ngassa really knows how to treat the trumpet.

There are several further tour dates. In case you have a chance to attend, do not hesitate – you won’t regret. And hurry up – Tollhaus was well crowded, and some of the concerts are already sold out!

Lineup:

Rüdiger Oppermann (Europe) – Harps, Morin Khoor
Katajaq Duo (Canada) – Inuit singing
Enkh Jargal Dandarvaanchig (Mongolia): Dinging, Violin
Park Stickney (New York): Harp
Terrence Ngassa (Cameroon ) – Jazz Trumpet
Agus/Wahyu Rhythm Explosion (Java) – Gendang drums
Jatinder Thakur (INdia) – Tablas

Once again, thanks guys and girls for an enjoyable evening.

—-

Edit: A couple of samples are available online:
www.klangwelten.com/festival/2011/2011_ton.html

Waldorf Microwave I and microQ synthesizers sold

ce — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:39:50 +0000

Waldorf microQ synthesizer

The microQ is a cool device, and you get a lot of synthesizer for the money. However, it didn’t provide the kind of sound I was after.

The Microwave (I) was the first real synth I ever owned. I still can program it almost blindly. It is one of the most punchy synths I ever played. And it has an individual voice.

Waldorf Microwave I synthesizer

Today I sold both synths, breaking the tradition of playing Waldorf machines. Hope both buyers will have fun with them.

Synths for sale – Waldorf Microwave I and microQ

ce — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:49:33 +0000

Due to time constraints, I decided to sell some of my classic synth gear.

This was my very first true synthesizer, the (in)famous Waldorf Microwave I. Unfortunately the corners have been damaged by the rack mount screws, which already was the case when I bought the device, which was the demo device at Musik-Service Aschaffenburg. The backlight of the display is fully operational, but the display appears a bit dark on the picture due to some underexposure.

I fired it up these days, and was still impressed by its sound. The envelopes are really fast, dedicating the device for lead, bass, and drum sounds. Thanks to its analogue filters, pads sound great as well. Contemporary synths can do much more than the Microwave, but this device is an easy to program and use workhorse with an absolutely individual sound.

Waldorf Microwave I synthesizer

The Digitech Studio Quad is a four in four out multi effects processor. The inputs can be routed to the outputs individually. In between, several effects can be applied. I used this device for some delay or a little reverb for the Microwave and as a digital rotary speaker (aka Leslie) for my old Viscount D9 organ (already sold).

Digitech Studio Quad multieffects processor

The Waldorf microQ more or less is the grandson of the Microwave, though its sound architecture is different. It’s similar to its successor, the Waldorf Blofeld, but AFAIK the Blofeld does not provide drum maps.

Waldorf microQ synthesizer

I prefer shipping within Germany. For other destinations, the price needs adjustment due to the extra traffic.

Cubase MIDI Device Files released

ce — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:41:31 +0000

For my personal use, I created some Cubase MIDI Device Files (see the products section of this blog). Currently there are files for the following instruments:

Alesis micron
Access Virus C
Korg Z1

I’ve also added step by step installation instructions for (hopefully) painless usage. I hope it’s useful for musicians ’round the globe.

LAC 2010 conference

ce — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:04:16 +0000

Audio Icon (openclipart.org, public domain)

Though I’ll not attend, I’d like to advertise this year’s Linux Audio Conference, “the conference about Open Source Software for music and sound” which takes place from May 1-4 2010 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Hopefully the programme wets your appetite.

Simple Sysexxer 0.3 released

ce — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:26:54 +0000

Simple Sysexxer 0.3

I just uploaded Simple Sysexxer 0.3. See its dedicated page for details about download and usage.

The MIDI reception part has been rewritten to use the ALSA sequencer directly. Receiving (and sending) huge SysEx messages (greater than 256 bytes, ALSA’s buffer size) now should work reliably. At least it does with a Korg Z1 Synthesizer (168 531 bytes for the complete internal memory).

Hope you enjoy. Feedback is always welcome. Just drop me a line.

Synth Programming – “I believe in Fourier Synthesis”

ce — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:32:41 +0000

Sliced lemon (openclipart.org, public domain)

To better understand sound synthesis and synth waveforms it is very useful to learn more about Fourier synthesis, the reverse process of Fourier analysis. In the following sections, I’ll try to condense the necessary knowledge as much as possible. I hope this simplification does not produce mistakable results. Otherwise please drop me a line.

A Sinewave

The most simple tone is a sinewave. None of the natural instruments is capable to create one, but the sound of a tuning fork is very close to it. In synthesizers, a sinewave usually is available directly as the output of an oszillator. We do recognize the frequency of this single sinewave as the pitch of this tone.

A sinewave.

More harmonic Sinewaves

To change the timbre of the tone, further sinewaves are added, where their frequencies are integer multitudes of the base frequency. The second partial, for example, just is the sinewave at the double frequency of the base sinewave – the octave. The third partial is the sinewave at the triple frequency – a fifth. The fourth again is an octave, the fifth is a third, the sixth again is a fifth, the seventh is a minor seventh, the eighth is an octave again and so forth. You may be surprised that there are so many “inharmonic” frequencies in a tone, but this model works very well for synthesizing sounds. Those harmonic partials are called the “harmonic series”. An instrument that uses this approach to create different sounds is the Hammond organ:

Drawbar Partials of a Hammond Organ

The nine partials (called drawbars) of a Hammond organ, however, are not enough to simulate any natural instrument or to really create a huge set of different sounds. It is necessary to use even more partials, at least until the upper limit of the audible area was passed. Here’s another example. It’s a sawtooth wave from a Korg Z1 synthesizer. The first 32 harmonic partials are emphasized one after another, so they are clearly audible. Note that the emphasized partials are not added but already contained (and only emphasized):

Partials emphasized by a resonance oscillator

The Amplitudes of Sinewaves

The characteristic of a particular musical instrument is the result of the amplitudes of the partials. Some partials may be nonexistent (zero amplitude), while others may be dominant. Additionally, the tone of natural instruments changes over time. Imagine a piano or mallet tone slowly fading away. The amplitude of the partials decreases, and some will decrease faster than others. Considering the stack of individual sinewaves, both aforementioned requirements mean that it was desirable to somehow influence the amplitudes of the individual sinewaves over time. The Hammond does this by fading out the tone of one of the drawbars. It’s called “percussion”:

Hammond Percussion Partials

Here’s what it sounds like when used to play the organ:

Drawbar Percussion Example

Using a low pass filter (available in almost any synthesizer), one can damp the topmost partials of the aforementioned sawtooth wave:

A Sawtooth wave filtered by a lowpass filter

Inharmonic Frequencies

Until now, it was assumed that the partial tones are integer multitudes of the base sine frequency. Most instruments, however, also produce inharmonic partials – some less, some more. A violin (whose timbre is very similar to a sawtooth wave BTW) has a clear pitch and inharmonic partials will play a minor (but nevertheless important) role. If it comes to bells, drums or cymbals, however, the inharmonic partials will play a more significant role.

Synthesizer sounds will also benefit from inharmonic partials, either applied softly to add some “dirt” to the sound, or to create drum and cymbal like sounds.

Many Inharmonic Frequencies

Noise can be imagined as a tone with many frequencies constantly changing over time. By filtering some frequencies out of the noise, it is easily possible to imitate wind or the roar of the surf. Added to a triangle wave, it is possible to imitate the blowing noise of a real flute. Noise alone can be used to imitate drum like sounds.

Additive vs. subtractive Synthesis

Besides others, two synthesis systems have been described in this posting:

The Hammond organ provides a (very basic) additive synthesis system, where the amplitude of the first 9 harmonic partials can be altered by dedicated drawbars.
Subtractive synthesizers provide waveforms which contain lots of partials. Filters are used to remove the unwanted partials.

Further synthesis systems, such as frequency modulation or granular synthesis, are more difficult to understand and use and will thus not be described further in this posting.

Resume

I’d like to repeat some of the most essential portions of this posting:

The most basic tone we know of is a sinewave.
Adding more harmonic (or inharmonic) sinewaves alters the characteristics of the tone.
Dynamic sounds consist of partials whose amplitudes change over time.
Most synthesizers provide a noise generator to create inharmonic frequencies.
Most synthesizers provide subtractive synthesis capabilities, where filters are used to alter the amplitudes of the partials. A Hammond organ is a very simple example for additive synthesis.

I hope this posting will help to better understand some of the following postings I plan to write. If not, I did something wrong. Please drop me a line.

Sorting Sound Files using Ruby

ce — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:27:06 +0000

Consider you have 2,248 files in a directory, each containing one single sound program for your favourite Z1 synth. You need to load them into the synth individually, listen to them and to sort them in directories. Painful it would be.

Fortunately, all sounds are set to one of 18 predefined categories like guitar, synth hard, synth soft, piano, organ and the like. In the SysEx files, the category is coded into the 26. byte. So it was easy to sort the files into subdirectories using a couple of lines of Ruby code (sorry for the misformatting):

#! /usr/bin/ruby


require 'fileutils.rb'
def determineCategory( filename )

  file = File.open( filename, "rb:binary" )

  fileContents = file.read

  category = fileContents[25] + 1

  # puts filename, category

  unless File.directory?(category.to_s)

    Dir.mkdir( category.to_s )

  end

  FileUtils.mv( filename, category.to_s )

end

Dir.glob( '*.[Ss][Yy][Xx]' ) do |entry| determineCategory entry end

This language seems to be very powerful. Need to do more with it.