Thummer

[Plamondon]

Gentlepersons,

 

I thought that perhaps y’all might be interested in an update on Thumtronics’ forthcoming concertina-like MIDI controller, the Thummer, which has been mentioned intermittently here over the last few years.

 

Much as I enjoyed living in Western Australia, it proved to be a sub-optimal location from which to launch a new high-tech company. Relocation to the USA was clearly required. After careful examination of the alternatives, Austin won out as Thumtronics’ new home, due to being both the USA’s #2 high-tech center and the Live Music Capital of the World. Austin has proven to be very supportive of Thumtronics (e.g., the Austin Business Journal recently named Thumtronics as one of the most innovative Austin companies of the year). It appears that we’ll get what we need – cash from investors and research from the University of Texas – to help establish Thumtronics’ innovations in the marketplace.

 

In the meantime, Thumtronics has spent two years treading water.

 

Well, not entirely. I’ve been working with U. Wisconsin's Bill Sethares and the Tonal Centre's Andrew Milne on the theoretical implications of musical keyboards that have “the same fingering in every key” – isomorphic keyboards – such as the Wicki/Hayden. Two scientific articles have been accepted so far. The first will be appearing in the Winter 2007 edition of the Computer Music Journal and the second in the Journal of Mathematics and Music. Both lay the theoretical foundations of Dynamic Tuning, in which one changes the tuning of the instrument on the fly. The CMJ article describes “tuning invariance” (same fingering in every tuning) as a pre-condition of Dynamic Tuning, and the JMM article describes mathematical metrics by which different isomorphic keyboards (Wicki/Hayden, Janko, Bosanquet, etc.) can be meaningfully compared. The Wicki/Hayden turns out to be the best for Dynamic Tuning.

 

These articles include more math than I can follow (written by my collaborators), but using this implementation, you can “just do it” without understanding the math. Using your QWERTY keyboard as a Wicki/Hayden layout, play an interval, a chord, or whatever, and slide the tuning slider up and down; you’ll hear the tuning of all sounded notes change as the tuning changes. (The timbre’s harmonics are adjusted in real time to align with the tuning’s scale steps, too, to maximize sensory consonance.) This online implementation only supports regular temperaments, but my collaborators have recently extended the implementation to include irregular temperaments (such as Bach’s Well Temperament) and even Just Intonation, all with the same consistent fingering as in 12-tone equal temperament. The timbres don’t sound great – this is a “laboratory” implementation, not a commercial synthesizer – but it clearly shows that Dynamic Tuning works. It’s something truly new under the sun.

 

A much simpler web-based version of the Wicki/Hayden keyboard can be found here (Windows only…sorry). Its polyphony depends on your computer keyboard (usually only two or three notes at a time).

 

Thumtronics website has been updated, and now includes a blog which may be of interest.

 

So, I can’t sell you a Thummer yet, or even offer prototypes for beta testing, as I had hoped to do some time ago. But things are finally moving ahead again, and we should have Thummers available within less than a year of getting funding.

 

Whee! :-)

 

Jim Plamondon

CEO, Thumtronics Inc

The New Shape of Music™

Austin, Texas

www.thummer.com

[David Barnert]

Good luck with this, Jim. Sounds exciting. I've been watching your progress since we first corresponded about this years ago. I agree that Austin is the perfect place to nurture it. Good for you for making the move.

[Richard Morse]

A much simpler web-based version of the Wicki/Hayden keyboard can be found here (Windows only…sorry).

I can't seem to get any sound out of that page even though I've installed the FlashMIDI. Help?

 

-- Rich --

[Leo]

I can't seem to get any sound out of that page even though I've installed the FlashMIDI. Help?

 

-- Rich --

Rich

 

Here are a couple of samples I found that should work:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=thum...=0&filter=0

 

Thanks

Leo

[ragtimer]

Gentlepersons,

 

I thought that perhaps y’all might be interested in an update on Thumtronics’ forthcoming concertina-like MIDI controller, the Thummer, which has been mentioned intermittently here over the last few years.

Glad to hear that this Hayden-style keyboard set is back in the running. Does it still look like the prototype pictured on your old website?

. . .

Both lay the theoretical foundations of Dynamic Tuning, in which one changes the tuning of the instrument on the fly. The CMJ article describes “tuning invariance” (same fingering in every tuning) as a pre-condition of Dynamic Tuning, and the JMM article describes mathematical metrics by which different isomorphic keyboards (Wicki/Hayden, Janko, Bosanquet, etc.) can be meaningfully compared. The Wicki/Hayden turns out to be the best for Dynamic Tuning.

I take it this system can tune for perfect thirds and the like, as you play? A great concept, especially if it can figure out from the fingered notes on the fly, how to tune a chord!

When you return to the home key tonic chord, after going thru a cycle of 5th chord changes, will it have "drifted" sharp or flat?

These articles include more math than I can follow (written by my collaborators), but using this implementation, you can “just do it” without understanding the math.

Will this program run udner Win98, or does it require XP? Apparently it needs some kind of Flash MIDI Player, which some have had trouble with.

So, I can’t sell you a Thummer yet, or even offer prototypes for beta testing, as I had hoped to do some time ago. But things are finally moving ahead again, and we should have Thummers available within less than a year of getting funding.

I hope the Thummer keyboards will be available without all the lesson materials bundled with them -- we Haydenites already know how to play the things, I think ... Mike K.

[m3838]

I got the sound. Although it was sounding sporadically.

The chance to try Hayden Duet on my keyboard was a blast. I can clearly see it's advantages, where major and minor, all inversions are the same. Not very intuitive, so perhabs those with years of classical training will find it unappealing.

There is market niche for it, as silent practice Hayden Duet, why pass over it? At $500 people will be swarming over it to try.

[Richard Morse]

I can't seem to get any sound out of that page even though I've installed the FlashMIDI. Help?

Here are a couple of samples I found that should work:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=thum...=0&filter=0

I'm not looking for a listening sample, but for a way to play Hayden with my computer keyboard....

 

-- Rich --

[Plamondon]

I'm not looking for a listening sample, but for a way to play Hayden with my computer keyboard....Rich

 

There are two main problems with the Online Thummer implementation, both related to FlashMIDI. First, FlasMIDI is Windows-only -- no Mac version. Second, FlashMIDI doesn't install properly, so you have to re-install it every time you run the Online Thummer website. You install it by clicking on the place where it says "FlashMIDI Required Click Here To Install" and then follow the instructions that pop up.

 

The Dynamic Tuning demo application requires the Max/MSP runtime, which is free and works on both Windows and the Mac.

 

m3838 commented that the Wicki/Hayden note-layout was not very intuitive. This is certainly true for those whose intuitions are based on deep experience with the piano keyboard's linear sequence of semi-tones. Guitarists find the Wicki/Hayden note-layout to be very intuitive, apparently due to their greater experience with a two-dimensional matrix of note-controlling frets/stings. Intuition is just crystallized experience, after all, so those with different experiences have different intuitions. Other people have suggested that generalized keyboards like the Wicki/Hayden are specifically "intuitive instruments for improvisers." Bottom line: when it comes to intuition, your mileage may vary.

 

The market niche Thumtronics is initially targeting with the Thummer is described here.

 

Ragtimer asked "When you return to the home key tonic chord, after going thru a cycle of 5th chord changes, will it have "drifted" sharp or flat?" Neither. Dynamic Tuning changes the pitch of all notes except the tonic. This presumes the syntonic temperament (i.e., that temperament in which the pitches of all non-tonic notes are derived by stacking tempered perfect fifths one atop the other, and then subtracting octaves, with the tempered major third being equal in width to four tempered perfect fifths minus two octaves), which includes all of the meantone tunings, 12-tone "equal temperament" tuning, and many other interesting tunings.

 

Ragtimer also asked "I take it this system can tune for perfect thirds and the like, as you play? A great concept, especially if it can figure out from the fingered notes on the fly, how to tune a chord!

 

Ragtime, I think that you're thinking of Dynamic Tuning as being like Hermode Tuning, in which the fundamental pitches of notes are adjusted to maximize their alignment with the tonic's overtones, which are presumed to follow the Harmonic Series. Thumtronics' Dynamic Tuning works the other way around -- it adjusts harmonics to align with the current tuning, thereby enabling the performer to change tuning on the fly while retaining consonance. This appears to be a completely new way to solve the Gordian riddle of tuning and consonance.

 

Please note that Dynamic Tuning in not "built into" the Thummer. The Thummer is just a highly-expressive MIDI controller with two Wicki/Hayden keyboards. It just emits MIDI. Dynamic Tuning is set of musical effects made possible by the existence of the Thummer (or at lease, an Online Thummer and a mouse).

 

So, what Thumtronics is offering is three different axes of advantage:

1) easier to learn (using Wicki/Hayden layout, the ThumMusic System, and the ability to enable the expressive controls progressively as one gains skill),

2) more expressive (using thumb-operated joysticks and internal motion sensors, as in the Nintendo Wii), and

3) opening new creative frontiers, through Dynamic Tuning.

 

We've also recently realized that we can make a Pocket Thummer -- a self-contained music-making solution with battery power, built-in sounds, two 2-octave keyboards (of 15 buttons per octave, in the Wicki/Hayden layout), and a ear-bud jack -- which can fit in your pocket, for under $100.

 

All I need to do is raise the monry to get the first product to market, and we should scale up reasonably smoothly after that. That's the plan, anyway.

 

I appreciate your comments and questions -- keep 'em coming! :-)

 

--- Jim

[Richard Morse]

There are two main problems with the Online Thummer implementation, both related to FlashMIDI. First, FlasMIDI is Windows-only -- no Mac version. Second, FlashMIDI doesn't install properly, so you have to re-install it every time you run the Online Thummer website. You install it by clicking on the place where it says "FlashMIDI Required Click Here To Install" and then follow the instructions that pop up.

Boy, that's pretty lousy. So I installed it again and still can't hear anything. I'm using Windoze XP pro.

The Dynamic Tuning demo application requires the Max/MSP runtime, which is free and works on both Windows and the Mac.

It's only free for 30 days and then costs $595....

We've also recently realized that we can make a Pocket Thummer -- a self-contained music-making solution with battery power, built-in sounds, two 2-octave keyboards (of 15 buttons per octave, in the Wicki/Hayden layout), and a ear-bud jack -- which can fit in your pocket, for under $100.

Sounds great! Is there a photo of this device you can share with us?

 

-- Rich --

[paperpunchr]

WoooHooo! Sounds like a winning concept, allowing you to learn one basic pattern and then play in any key...I hope it winds up being affordable as well as profitable...Good luck!

[m3838]

m3838 commented that the Wicki/Hayden note-layout was not very intuitive. This is certainly true for those whose intuitions are based on deep experience with the piano keyboard's linear sequence of semi-tones.

 

No, I mean that piano keyboard is easily predictable. Guitar fretboard is easily predictable too and linear. Hayden, MacCann, Crane, B and C system chromatic are not predictable systems. Been 2-dimentional, they have some consecutive tones in places, that feel like going in opposite direction - reaching higher tone feels like reaching down in scale. My Bayan teacher recently told me that he realized (too late) that playing Piano Accordion is easier than Button Cromatic. And he's a pro.

Your keyboard demo demonstrates just that: try playing C major, then Cminor chords. They are entirely different by feel, but the only change is flattening the third. Not that it's bad or good, but by denying the obvious you are unlikely to move anywhere.

Electronic musical keyboards is very interesting issue: they have a chance to be the optimal, but what's the optimal, and for what? So it all comes to perceptions. Yours is that the better keyboard is the most logical. And by logical you mean same shapes of chords in all octaves and keys. Many piano players told me that they don't care about similarity in keys, because they can easily come up with needed shapes on the fly, and were confused by my 3 row Chromatic keyboard.

It's basically like difference between English and Russian languages: in English you have to know the word, in Russian you can come up with one on a fly, but Russian Grammar is hideous, and English' is non-existent by comparison.

Out of concertina keyboards I think English and Crane are the most universal and have higher potential down the road. Anglo is the most immediate, but treacherous, if you progress beyond average amateur, and Hayden is a thing on it's own. It's fully chromatic and promises easy transposition, but favours diatonic scales, rudimentary chords and is less efficient space-wise because of redundancy.

But in the real world, among adults, picking up musical instrument, without much money and time to dedicate, with neighors and family around - your pocket Hayden is a treasure of immense proportions. Whopping 4 octaves, easy to learn keyboard with some twitchy elements (can deal with) ,at a price of middle range harmonica? Where is the line?

[Plamondon]

Electronic musical keyboards is very interesting issue: they have a chance to be the optimal, but what's the optimal, and for what?

 

I agree entirely: there is no "optimal," there is only "optimal for a given purpose," and even then the determination of optimality is sensitive to initial conditions, such as the musical background of the individual, the kind of music the individual wants to play, and a host of other variables.

 

Is the Wicki/Hayden note-layout "best" in any ultimate, Platonic sense? No. But it appears to be optimal for my purpose. What is my purpose? To help a higher percentage of the world's population succeed at learning to understand and play music by (a) abstracting the display and control of musical information to the level at which music theory operates -- the level of musical intervals and the relationships among them -- and by ( exposing this higher-level musical information in a geometrically-consistent manner (using tonic solfa, a chromatic staff, the tonnetz, keyboard-based chord symbols, etc.), thereby making music's otherwise abstract concepts concrete, tangible, and simple. For this purpose, the Wicki/Hayden note-layout appears to be optimal.

 

Cheap and simple -- that's my motto. ;-)

 

But in the real world, among adults, picking up musical instrument, without much money and time to dedicate, with neighors and family around - your pocket Hayden is a treasure of immense proportions.

 

Exactly. Thank you.

[Plamondon]

Sounds great! Is there a photo of this device you can share with us?

 

Not yet. It is literally "on the drawing board."