Polyfluous: MIDI-enhanced keyboard polyphony
March 2, 2022 6:03 AM Subscribe
Polyfluous: MIDI-enhanced keyboard polyphony
I wanted to play polyphonic music (e.g., Bach) on my keyboard and give each voice a different sound, so I wrote some software to make it so. Link goes to 2 min. youtube video of a somewhat rough demonstration of my progress so far. Still lots to do, but I think there's something there.
I wanted to play polyphonic music (e.g., Bach) on my keyboard and give each voice a different sound, so I wrote some software to make it so. Link goes to 2 min. youtube video of a somewhat rough demonstration of my progress so far. Still lots to do, but I think there's something there.
Role: programmer player
It follows along in the score note-by-note as I play. It currently doesn't use any time information, which lets me play with a lot of, shall we say, "unintentional rubato" (lol) but if I miss a note the program gets confused. I would like to make it more forgiving of mistakes and maybe that'll mean incorporating time (but idk it seems a little scary).
posted by mpark at 9:26 AM on March 3, 2022
posted by mpark at 9:26 AM on March 3, 2022
Ohh, so it does a pitch search, then plays back the rest of the chord with the appropriate voices. That's a really neat way to get "add-on" accompaniment without the stress of being on time! I wouldn't have thought of that.
posted by ignignokt at 3:00 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ignignokt at 3:00 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not sure what you mean by "the rest of the chord" -- the only notes that get played are notes that I press on the keyboard. It's really just passing MIDI messages through with a little edit to the channel nibble. (The exception to that is some extra trickery when two parts intersect, in which case the program might, for example, have to duplicate a note-on so the flute and oboe both sound the note.) I'm probably not explaining this very well.
posted by mpark at 7:05 PM on March 3, 2022
posted by mpark at 7:05 PM on March 3, 2022
Having let "the rest of the chord" stew in my brain overnight, I've just come to a realization. I've been so focused on my use case of I-will-play-every-note-thank-you-very-much that I hadn't even considered that Polyfluous could add notes beyond those actually being pressed. Like I could tell it to add an E and G when I play a C at this particular point. Is that what you meant? Because that just might be genius. I mean it's basically cheating, given my original intentions for this program, but wow, thank you for opening my mind!
posted by mpark at 1:32 PM on March 4, 2022
posted by mpark at 1:32 PM on March 4, 2022
That's actually what I thought it was doing.
I now realize that you played every note, and Polyfluous just used the score to figure out which instrument gets which note, thanks to your explanation. It's a different thing, but if it doesn't get too confusing, a way to approach being a one-person live orchestra!
posted by ignignokt at 6:53 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
I now realize that you played every note, and Polyfluous just used the score to figure out which instrument gets which note, thanks to your explanation. It's a different thing, but if it doesn't get too confusing, a way to approach being a one-person live orchestra!
posted by ignignokt at 6:53 PM on March 4, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by ignignokt at 7:26 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]