Hermode tuning

[ffransis]

Does anyone out there have experience with Hermode tuning, and if so, would they like to share this with the forum? I know that Hermode tuning is implemented in the Access Virus synths, but have never had the opportunity to try one out. Technical comments, including the difficulty or otherwise of implementing the tuning, processing overheads, latency, etc, would be appreciated.

[play]

I hadn't heard of this until you mentioned it but I checked out hermode.com and a few postings on other forums. It doesn't like it would be difficult too implement in some kind of modular software environment. It basically uses a lookup table to determine how many cents to bump the incoming midi note with different tables for different keys. You could also create a slider that would limit the range of this adjusted value or scale down the ratio for more or less "pure" tuning.

I'm not sure I understand this though. There is a lot of talk about how it's like a string quartet or a choir because these musicians use their ears to slightly modify the pitch they are playing or singing to create a more perfect chord. But I've always thought that the beauty of these acoustic instruments comes from the high number of partials, not the purity of the tone.

I could be confused. I haven't heard an example of this tuning.

[ffransis]

[seraph]

[ffransis]

[seraph]

Emagic Logic Pro 7 supports Hermode Tuning (HMT) for its
internal audio instruments (except Ultrabeat where it doesn't make
sense).

[XpanderXT]

I have Logic and like Hermode Tuning. I'm not a big fan of their synths though and would love to have Hermode tuning on my other plug in's, my Waldorf XT(the microwave 2 ahs Hermode, the XT doesn't), my Oberheim Xpander and my Arturia Origin.
Any ideas?

[seraph]

I think you can assign hermode or other available tunings only to internal sounds.
To retune other virtual or hardware synths you need other applications.

[XpanderXT]

[seraph]

[Octahedra]

My Virus is the oldest model that supports this pure tuning feature - in fact it was added to the OS over a year after I bought the thing...

I've only checked out the pure tuning quite recently, and found it almost impossible to use with the amount of 'evil' chords I put in these days. It's a global setting that applies to all parts, and as the Virus is my biggest and best multitimbral sound source, it's doing most of the work in most of my tracks.

Often it only takes one or two (deliberate) dissonant intervals between simultaneous notes (regardless of which parts they're in) to throw the whole thing off - it then sets some of the other notes to pitches that are miles off. Not exotic, just awful.

So it seems you can only use it in music that's ultra-consonant all the time. The only workaround I can think of is to arrange your music so that the Virus parts always have consonant intervals with each other, and the notes that would cause problems are played on other synths. It'd just be a bit of a pain having to use my main synth in such a restricted way...

Gordon

[Rykhaard]

Mmmm. So - who's going to be the 1st person to come up with a Hermode capable MIDI to CV converter??

[Octahedra]

[Rykhaard]

[seraph]

if you had a Mac you could spend much less for a more powerful application called LMSO

or try the freely downloadable Windows application Scala.

[Octahedra]