Topic by moshuajusic

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  • moshuajusic
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  • Registered: 01-12-2008
  • Posts: 257

Topic: Questions about new steel pan models

I'm so gratified that steel pan models are now a reality just a few months after I requested them.

Can they be "tuned" like the real thing, emphasizing different harmonics?

Is each steel pan (tenor, double guitar, etc.) a separate instrument playable only one at a time, or are the different steel pans spread out over the keyboard simultaneously? (Might consider an update to make either an option, for the following reason...)

Do notes have more than one corresponding key so you can play tremolos on a single pitch?

Thanks!

Reply by Philippe Guillaume

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  • Philippe Guillaume
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  • Registered: 25-04-2007
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Re: Questions about new steel pan models

The steelpans instruments obey the same rules as the other instrument for their parameterization. In particular, each overtone can be adjusted separately. Conversely, the new feature that was developed for the steelpans - blooming energy and blooming inertia - can be used by the other instruments (try it, it can make a lot of fun).

The four instruments that served as model for the Steel Drum instrument (Tenor, Double Second, Double Guitar, Triple Cello) have different ranges (although they share some common notes), and we concatenated/spread them over 4 octaves to make one single instrument with a larger range. The resulting Steel Drum instrument can be seen as a combination or juxtaposition of the four models.

Regarding your last question, this looks more like a hardware question: is it possible to assign a given midi message to a given key.

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