MUSICAL README: This musical readme file is dedicated to my friend Jim McIntyre (of Von Hemmling). It gives a little background about a 'Non-Pythagorean' 12-tone musical scale I invented, partially inspired by Jim’s interest in modern classical music, particularly in temperament, and partially inspired by my interest in mathematics-- also it will provide you with just a few instructions to play the scale on your computer. There are twelve keys in an octave on the piano keyboard, that is all the white keys and all the black keys. So a 12-tone scale means that each tone (or frequency) in the scale corresponds to one white or black key in the piano octave. The 12-tone scale included with this CD is based on the natural logarithm function, and is explained in the attached document a 'Non-Pythagorean musical scale' in more detail. It is a sequence of tones which does not correspond to the notes you normally hear when you play a piano-- that is, most of the notes in this non-Pythagorean scale do not match any of the traditional pitches on the piano keyboard (I call the scale 'Non-Pythagorean' because the discovery of the traditional 12-tone scale is attributed to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras). These are not randomly spaced pitches-- natural logarithms add together in a simple, beautiful way according to a different rule (or algebra) from the rules of addition which apply to most real numbers, and to most musical frequencies. Now musical harmonies and beat frequencies are the results of the addition and subtraction of the frequencies of tones, and largely contribute to what sounds we perceive as musical or pleasing-- and as logarithms follow a different sort of algebra of addition and subtraction, from whole numbers, I wondered if harmonies and beats resulting from this algebra would produce pleasing sensations in the listener, and if they would sound musical-- It is a little mind bending at first hearing these strange pitches come from a keyboard which formerly sounded so familiar, but the scale definitely produces chords and melodies which are musical, if alien-sounding-- the lower notes in the octave produce strong, bell-like, ringing chords and the higher notes have an almost microtonal quality which makes me feel peculiar when I play them-- in a nice way-- I have experimented with other non-Pythagorean scales, for instance one based on the square root function, but they have not produced such nice music yet-- perhaps because the mathematical relationship between the notes is not so strong-- anyway I will keep trying. I find it fascinating that you can experience these mathematical relationships with your ears-- although Pythagoras would say that experiencing mathematical relationships with your ears is what music is all about! That the music theory of the scale is not worked out at all, I think makes it worth giving to others to experiment with, and work out. I would be very interested to hear from computer programmers who would like to work on software ideas related to non-Pythagorean scales. TECHNICAL README: This technical readme file is dedicated to my brother-in-law Craig Morris (of The Ideal Free Distribution, and Thee American Revolution), who turned the scale which I created with a sine wave generator into a SoundFont which I could play on a MIDI keyboard. Craig also showed me how to use the MIDI keyboard. To call this section 'technical' is a stretch. I am going to do my best to tell you how to use the included freeware to play the SoundFont (.sf2) file of the non-Pythagorean scale. Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on SoundFonts, which is informative, and provides links to all of the freeware referenced below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundfont First you should copy non-pythagorean.sf2 to an appropriate place on your hard drive, which is SoundFont that you can play with a MIDI keyboard on your computer. Also included are WAV files of the individual notes, for you to load into your sampler. Then download and install the freeware programs SFZ and Chainer (PC), or SimpleSynth (MAC), according to the following instructions: MAC USERS: Download and run SimpleSynth-0.8.dmg, which installs SimpleSynth, a Mac OSX freeware program which plays SoundFonts. I have never used this program as I record on a PC, so I cannot give you any help at all in using it. I’m sorry about that, but I have heard good things about this program. Here is a link to the SimpleSynth developer’s page, which you can refer to for download, specs and other information: http://pete.yandell.com/software/ PC USERS: Download and run sfz197.exe to install the SFZ software which will load and play SoundFont files. It is a great freeware VST plug-in, and I used it to compose the non-Pythagorean link tracks on this album. Here is a link to SFZ developer RGC Audio’s page, which you can refer to for download, specs and other information: http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm If you do not have a sound card or audio software which supports VST plug-ins, then you will also download and open chainer103.zip, and run Setup.exe to install Chainer which is an excellent standalone freeware program for using VST plug-ins. Here is a link to the Chainer developer Xlutop’s page, which you can refer to for download, specs and other information: http://www.xlutop.com/html/chainer.html Both Chainer and SFZ are amazing pieces of software, and I am very thankful to their developers because they have proved extremely useful to me in the studio, and made possible my experiments with the non-Pythagorean scale. Follow the installation instructions given to you by the programs and you should be on the right track. Assuming you get the programs installed successfully, I am going to tell you how to open the SoundFont. Okay first you need to have a MIDI keyboard connected to your computer. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard you can get one easily-- MIDI basically tells the computer what notes you are playing. Mine is called 'MusicStar' and I bought it for like $30 on Ebay-- it looks exactly like a Casio with no buttons. I would recommend using a MIDI-to-USB cable (such as M-Audio’s Midisport Uno) as it is plug and play, and bypasses most of the subtleties of MIDI. If you do not have VST supporting audio software, then run Chainer.exe, and go to the System/Settings menu. Set 'ASIO Driver' to your sound card, and 'MIDI In' to your MIDI controller (for instance your USB MIDI driver). Don't worry about 'MIDI thru,' just close the window when you have checked the settings. Then go to the first row of green windows, and press the arrow button on the far left. Open the Instruments menu and choose 'sfz.' If you do have VST supporting software, then ignore the preceding paragraph and open SFZ. In the SFZ window, click on the gray window to the right of 'FILE' and open non-pythagorean.sf2 from the location where you saved it on your hard drive. You should be able to play the scale on your MIDI keyboard now. If not, consult a friend who knows more than you do, like my brother-in-law Craig. Explore the strange tones and chords. You have never heard these tones in these combinations before. Maybe nobody has. (c) 2007 Robert Schneider http://www.applesinstereo.com