Tech: barrier breaking Infinitone instrument

Subject: Tech: barrier-breaking Infinitone instrument
From: Felipa
Date: 02 Apr 21 - 09:56 AM

https://expmag.com/2021/03/it-looks-like-a-saxophone-but-plays-512-notes-many-youve-never-heard-before/

It looks like a saxophone but plays 512 notes — many you’ve never heard before

How a jazz musician created the Infinitone to challenge Western musical ideas.

By Tony Rehagen

... "Once he had a working prototype, [Subhraag Singh], entered the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, an international showcase for the newest ideas in music, held annually at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. And now he was flying to Georgia with his homespun brass horn — dubbed the “Infinitone” — stowed in a makeshift sheet-metal case in the plane’s cargo hold. This was the moment of truth: In front of the entire world, industry professionals would either tell Singh that they believed his invention was the future of music, or that he had simply lost his mind. [He won first prize]

"The Infinitone, an elongated pyramid of brass, resembles a futuristic soprano saxophone, with the usual mouthpiece, reed, and ligature. But while a sax’s keys attach to valves that open and shut, the Infinitone has five motorized slides that give it the flexibility of a trombone or guitar. The horn plugs into an iPad, which controls the slides. Rather than playing the instrument directly, the player touches the screen to play a colorful spectrum of 512 notes — 256 per octave, instead of the usual black-and-white 12. ... ...

"And Singh hopes that his newest technological advance will allow more musicians to access his broad range of tones. For interested composers who play something other than saxophone, Singh and his associates have developed Infinitone DMT (Dynamic Micro Tuning), a software plug-in based on the idea behind the instrument. When the application is released this spring, it will enable any music-minded artist — or anyone who’s merely curious — to explore a wider world of musical expression."

We do have possibilities to break out of the conventional western scale with some non-electronic instruments. There are musicians who play beyond the notes available on, for instance, piano keys. Some eastern stringed instruments, for example the Persian "tar", have quarter note frets rather than whole and half-tone frets. Players of fretless stringed instruments sometimes slide notes (and there are some possibilities to slide on some wind instruments).

Subject: RE: Tech: barrier breaking Infinitone instrument
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 10:59 AM

I listened, Felipa, but to tell you the truth, it didn't sound much different from the playing of jazz musicians I have heard. Westerners have been bending notes when they can for a long time.

I would have liked to see what he is doing on the touch screen. Now THAT'S a new ball game. Thanks for posting.

Subject: RE: Tech: barrier breaking Infinitone instrument
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Apr 21 - 06:44 PM

"Microtonality in Western Music" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1XOnIk2ai8