Music

I've received the keyboard, a Yamaha PSR-GX76, A 76 key digital keyboard. The unit has MIDI in and out ports using 5-pin DIN connectors. I've gotten the keyboard ouput in Midiox. What remains is getting the keyboard working with Csound in the QuTe gui (graphical user interface).

I purchased a used Yamaha digital keyboard at an online auction and the nit should arrive tomorrow. The  PSR-GX76  is an entry level keyboar, some years old, but I want to try MIDI with my laptop and sound system. I'll use Csound, the software suite from MIT, to map a Hammond B3 Csound instrument onto the keyboard. I have a 1968 Hammond H-182, touted by some as a Super B3, but I'm interested in MIDI programming. The keyboard is not as sophosticated as I would like, but the price was right for an experimental instrument and there are 76 keys, a deciding factor. The only thing better would have been a full 88. I've already received a power charger, purchased from eBay, to replace the one not accomanying the keyboard. I may need a special cable to go between the keyboard an my laptop. I'll have to order one after I've set up the  GX76.

   This morning, I spent some time with the emulator and the Csound and CsoundAV software.    I had forgotten much of what I had to do to get the setup working. This was almost a new beginning for me.    What I found was that some of the older program aids I had used were now antiquated and would not work in the Windows 10 operating system. Eventually, I found a similar software that was compatible with the current version of Windows. Still there was much to do.    The B3 emulator is a program that consists of a list of parameters and commands, including some for the GUI(Graphical User Interface) (emulated knobs and switches on a control panel). I had to tweak the command line options, known as 'switches', to get the thing to run in CsoundAV. The command line options can be, and are in this case, included at the top of the instrument/score file. The command line I ended up using is: -+q0 +p1  -m0 -+O -+K -b400 -+P    There ...

   Several years ago I began studying the potentials of computers in relation to music. I explored midi file composition using several software programs. As mentioned before, I used  the computer to record organ compositions on my 1968 Hammond H-182. When I discovered Gabriel Maldonado's CsoundAV for real time performance, I had no way to input note data to the computer software. I discovered a couple of pieces of software that would, together, allow me to do that.    This introduced me to the use of a computer keyboard as a musical instrument. After some time, I began to dwell on the differences between instruments and the nature of the physical possibilities and limitations in playing them.    One of the advantages of a computer keyboard over the standard 88s is the small physical space of the keyboard corresponds to a greater musical space. For example, octaves are mush easier to play on a computer keyboard than the 88. A guitar can only be playe...

   In 2006, I was making my rounds of the thrift and collectibles shops. I entered a branch of the Salvation Army thrift store chain and spied an old organ near the entrance. I knew immediately, I wanted the organ. I had watched desirable potential purchases disappear overnight because I hesitated. This time, I bargained to purchase the organ and pick it up within a week.    I built a platform for transporting the organ from one inch thick plywood, four three inch casters, two with locks, and some tie down, rachet controlled, straps. I found later the organ with bench and pedals weighs over 425 pounds.    After I managed to get the thing home, I replaced a cracking power cord with a new one. I opened the back and found a long tube of the manufacturer's original lubricating oil in a position on the inside side wall. I got on the web and spent some time googling for data. Eventually, I found a handful of invaluable sites that left me with a full ...

   As a precursor, let me reiterate, these blogs are for intelligent people with a university background and courses in mathematics, engineering, physics and other of the hard sciences.    I mentioned previously, that I had discovered and explored the free scientific audio suite,Csound, from some people at M.I.T.    I also mentioned one of the uses I found for the software, namely recording 78 discs at 33 or 45, and using the software to speed up the recordings without altering the pitch. Thus, I simulated a 78-rpm record player using Csound.    I also mentioned setting up my computer to play a Hammond B3 organ emulator written by one of the contributors, Josep Comjuncosas, using my computer keyboard, using a version of Csound written and built for real time by Gabriel Maldonado, another contributor.    There is something else I did. There has been a musical instrument harmonic database, known as the SHARC database, compiled by Greg...

   I've spent a lot of time studying and learning personal computers, and related technology. There is a vast array of software available, and much of it free.    One of the most fascinating works is a suite called Csound. Csound was founded by professors Vercoe and Boulanger at M.I.T, Mass.    The software can do almost anything imaginable with sound. There are many contributors to Csound, which is also an open-source project. Mathematical models of real instruments have been constructed. Models of synthesizers such as the Moog and Korg have been done.    My favorite is an emulation of a Hammond B3 by Josep Comajuncosas.    I developed a cojuple of applications for my own use.    I have some old 78-rpm records that are old and scratch from age and use. I no longer have a record player, or turntable, that has a 78-rpm setting. I decided that I could convert 78's recorded at a different speed to 33 or 45 speed. That's where...