Thanks once again for stretching my ear's ability to appreciate alternate tunings. You have always been on the cutting edge of this aspect of music. A rare perspective indeed, and, in contrast to the blue dwarf, fully marvelous.

Enjoying these pieces of yours in alternate tunings. Some of this reminds me of early blues recordings where certain notes were played "out of tune" because that's the way the players heard those notes. Cool stuff!

Weirdy stuff, I like the use of the choir, inspired touch! No, I think you are ok, I just found something belonging to you!

There's a real warmth to this - an unsettling warmth. Some of the runs remind me of church bells. Very clever.

Out there, but very interesting!

Woah, potent stuff!!!!!!!!!

Bizarre, yet Cool tune, I like the background vocals, This sounds like this could have originally been a MIDI track with new/diff samples inserted

Extremely creative! rough vikings oh yea it's the squirrel haha...what a battle!

with a viking hat....a tiny one....

Strange to say....for some reason i can picture that little squirrel paddling off into battle.......fog in the distance...a small furry furrowed brow....with vengence in his eyes...;)

Wild mechanistic nightmare with a Magma choir!

Ecumenically enchanting.

I love this, it's wonderful.

With a title like that who could resist! Great improv!

Very Nice!

Spooky AND uplifting! !

Sweet.

Smooth. Love the bass.

Good one! Very nice improv.

MIGHTY! Great title, great pic - sounds like a Bond movie but with elephants involved! Very clever.

Reg - he did do something like that one day - and yes it was great!

and the excellence of the music should be overlooked too.

Reg - you are one heck of a story teller! Have you considered writing a novel or short story?

Hi John, I like this one.

you should be creating music for sci-fi films!

I wish AT had a repeat button. I'm downloading this - great piece Norm!

I'm going to put this in my profile if it will fit. the question of how microtonality is perceived and why is a hotly debated one on the tuning list. There seems to be, in general, but not in all cases, shared intervals around the world, like the 5th. However non-western cultures use, in general, microtonal tunings. !2 equal notes to an octave is a relatively recent invention in the west. 300 years ago it was common for what would be now called a microtonal tuning to be in common, everyday use. As best as can be determined the push for 12 equal was all about changing keys in a single piece of music. If you take the tuning of the middle ages, Pythagorean, you find you can't play in any key despite having 12 notes because the intervals between the notes are not equally spaced. As a result when you take a pure chord and move it up or down the octave with the same distance between the notes it could become something hideous. 12 Equal solves that problem at the expense of detuning all notes, some more than others.

Hi Ricard, thanks for the listen and comment. It is probably hard not to hear 14 edo as out of tune since it so close to 12 but not quite there. I think then your sense of it being flattened and less bright is the result of the tuning.

This is beautiful! I love the bluesy feel. Would it be ok if I try to add to this?

On the three GR-20 pieces uploaded 6/8/11 this is how it works. In a nutshell - my guitar replaces a keyboard - but can do more. Everything you hear is driven by me playing my Fender Mustang in one improvised pass. Now, for each song the Fender Mustang by itself (or through an amp simulator) is heard - this sound comes from the traditional pick ups on the guitar. Besides that I have installed a Roland GK-3 pick up on my Mustang. This pick up has 6 tiny picks ups - one for each string and connects to a fairly large switch and then a 1/4" cable with some 11 lines - regular guitar output and 6 outputs for the GK-3. This cable connects to the GR-20 synthesizer / midi interface. The GR-20 first decodes, almost instantly, the note each string is playing. It then converts that to midi pitch information and shoves that out the back. More on that later. Also, since the GR-20 is a synthesizer besides, it takes the pitch information and routes it to an internal sound (if desired). The really interesting part is what happens when I route that midi output to my computer. At my computer Sonar lets me assign that midi data to any number of synthesizers / samplers/ what-have-you all at the same time. So, if I want a voice or strings or piano - no problem. As for drums - Kontakt has a really neat groups of sampled drum sets that are a combination of "one shots" and smaller loops. So for instance on one of the pieces when I played the C below middle C I got a snare roll, play the B below it I get the accent that finishes the roll. So, by playing many notes I get a complex assortment of drum sounds that are in time with my playing. I've used this technique before - I am learning how to control it better - and the response is different for each of the dozen or so drum kits packaged with Kontakt - and then consider the effect of different tempos - the result is a fair amount of variety.

your vocal control amazes me - excellent story and song!

Good one! You have a way, like The Boss, of touching something about life in your songs that just resonates. And judging from the comments -- resonates with pretty much everyone who hears.

I'm liking this!

this is a cool rocking piece - but didn't you use B maj as a resolution of B sus in there?

yes I am. With *lots* of rosin on the hair.

naw, I have nothing to do with NMC or DJNS. I was a part of 2 star man and that was enough for me!

excellent - and great solo!

more than just paulstretch I'd say - or different. in any case a cool idea!

I like the groove you two get going on this.

and a lovely romance it was.