I don't do much with changing parameters -- I do pretty much all of that stuff 
through MIDI controller messages.
Everything from Kurzweil up to the 2661 is blind accessible, because of the 
instrument maker's history. Ray Kurzweil wasn't looking to make musical 
instruments until Stevie Wonder thought of musical applications for the voice 
sampling system Ray was using. Since these instruments were designed with blind 
users in mind everything from the beginning (K250, K150, etc.) included the 
front panel status in their sysex messages. Applications like Kurlewin for 
Windows and Object Mover for the earlier Mac operating systems, Microsoft DOS, 
and the Atari ST could read those front panel values to the user. KDR, a 
program created by the Scramenti brothers, also would read that front panel 
info. Kurzweil's new owners, Samick, stopped including this information in the 
PC3X and later products. But should I want to I should be able to get the front 
panel data from all 13 of my 1000 series instruments and also the K2600ex. This 
can be useful for things like the chain linking function where the MIDI note 
stream is divided across multiple modules. So for instance, I could play a 
single layer sound on the Pro1/K1000 SE bank and have no note stealing across 
the playable range of any controller keyboard out there, with one exception. 
(The very rare Bielfus Performance Synthesizer has 128 keys, so I'd get note 
stealing on 8 voices if I played a piano or harp gliss, though the top and 
bottom notes wouldn't sound much like a piano anyway, as that's outside the 
range of the instrument by about 40 notes, slightly less when dealing with 
extended range pianos like the Bosendorfer Imperial) The cool part of this is 
that those modules are pretty cheap these days, and thanks to a very cool guy 
named Dr. David Brown (RIP, David) Kurzweil has made the upgrades available to 
anyone who either has or knows someone with a chip burner. These instruments 
are cool, but they're a lot more cool when upgraded all the way. And the 1000GX 
is pretty much unique, as it contains very nice samples of guitar and bass. 
(Which is why it shouldn't surprise you much that I have four of these modules)
I haven't gotten a chance to integrate the bass station and a station into my 
rig. Besides the room for the studio, I'll need sighted assistance and several 
new cable snakes to get everything set up the way I want it.
One of the reasons why I suspect a lot of blind folks go the software route is 
the complications of hardware scare them off. Not only do you need to set up 
the instrument, but there's cabling, getting levels, creating any program maps, 
and finding or creating  a definition file for QWS. This last task is easier 
thanks to one of the members of the list, who created a program that can 
convert Cakewalk definitions to the much simpler QWS format. But changing your 
sounds also means updating the definition file, and that's a lot more 
bookkeeping. So that may be why many folks aren't either getting into hardware 
gear or programming their own sounds. (I've built my own subtractive synthesis 
sounds from the ground up, but I also don't do that much anymore, and though I 
understand some of the very basic stuff about FM synthesis I'm not going to try 
to build my own sounds, as just about every usable sound has been created 
already) The folks who create their own sounds are rare these days, unless 
you're talking about the C Sound crowd, where sound creation is a fundamental 
part of creating the music.

Sent from my HAL 9000 in transit to Jupiter


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Niklas 
Rittinghaus
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2019 6:44 PM
To: QWS list <[email protected]>
Subject: QWS List AW: Hello to the list

Hi,

 

wow Nicole, that’s a lot of gear. And I thought I have many stuff here Right 
now. There are still Things that I want to have but in some cases I am unsure 
if they are usable for blind People. People with sight have no Limits, but 
blind People have to look for what they take at best.

Little machines like the volca series or the PO’s by teenage enginiring are 
cool because i can get something Maybe as a gift on Birthday or Christmas 
because of theier pricing, wich makes my parents other Family members happy, so 
they have some Gifts I can touch, instead of just Money or such.

>From what I read, the bass Station II, the circuit and the circuit mono 
>Station by Novation could be usable for blinds, has anyone experiences with 
>them? And can somebody say something About the two OP devices by teenage 
>enginiring, the OP-1 and the OP-z? Can they be used as well? I hope it is okay 
>if I ask here, because like I said, in the whats app Group, the blind People 
>who use Hardware are very rare and I hope to find more People on here who are 
>blind as well and can help with such Questions Maybe.

 

Best regards

Niklas

 

 


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