MICHAEL W. DEAN

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(Posted on two Microtonal / Xenharmonic Facebook groups, one here has a lot of comments with all sorts of takes on this)

I see a lot of energy devoted to that here, and elsewhere by people here.
I know the difference, and I know why Xen is more specific, (can be less than 12 per octave, not just more than 12 per octave, plus, who even needs octaves??)

And I know it’s also less based on a reaction to one type of tuning, 12TET. It seems less ethnocentric to say XEN.

I’ve even had people here CORRECT me (!) when I say “Microtonal”, like I’m some noob who doesn’t make Xen music and software. That comes off as welcome as someone proselyting their religion.

I see people trying to force it with the public, but it’s NEVER going to work, in my prediction. It also comes off as nitpicky when the best thing to do is just play the music for people and not worry about their nomenclature as much at first, or the math (unless they’re really into math.)

I taught a bunch of people who don’t play music the difference, tried to get them to say “Xen” or “Xenharmonic” instead of “Microtonal.” But “microtonal” always wins out in what they actually use, in the court of public opinion.

Fighting this is like telling young people not to use their own slang. Actually it’s more like Linux / GNU co-inventor (and GNU License inventor) Richard Stallman. He spends a lot of his time, for decades, sending emails trying to convince the world that they’re wrong, and they need to only ever:

1. Say “Ga-Nu Slash Linux” where they normally say Linux
and
2. “Free Software” doesn’t mean software that doesn’t cost money. It can ONLY means software licensed under the GNU License (or a license with equivalent rights.)

He’s sent several of these emails to me. And I’ve seen dozens of them he’s sent to other people and organizations, and many that he’s published, plus he travels giving talks that are largely about that.

Some high 90s percent of people will always say “free software” for software that costs no money, not for open source software. And some high 90s percent of people will never say “Ga-Nu Slash Linux” instead of “Linux.”

It’s a losing battle to try to get people to use Xenharmonic by telling them to use it, especially by correcting them.

I’m not saying stop using xenharmonic here, and I’m not saying rename the Xenharmonic Alliance.

I’m saying the public doesn’t care and you’re not going to get most people to switch.

Thoughts? (I bet y’all have some, and I bet a lot of people disagree.)

–Michael W. Dean

EDIT: OK, solved. Let’s call it “Micronal.” (not microtonal) This may have been a typo from Steve O’Brien, but I dig it, and it’s one syllable shorter than both microtonal and xenharmonic. lol.

MICROTONE 5000, new free Microtonal VST. 64-bit Windows. New from BipTunia Synths: https://biptunia.com/?p=10403

 

Below is audio of a piece I’m working on, called “Slow Blink.” The ring modulator on a synth comes in at 13 seconds. Schematic of the 4-diode design of a ring mod above. Has a sound like a broken bell. Without it this synth part sounds very clean, same as the synth that precedes it.

Ring modulators were originally hardware. I use a software version. But still, on a microscopic level, it’s probably using 2/3 of a transistor, 4 times, on my CPU. A transistor is 2 diodes with 3 leads, so you can use 2/3 of a transistor as a diode.

FULL FINAL ALBUM HERE.

# ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING DETAILS:

My latest #astrophotography photo. M31, plus of course, M32 and M110. I’m BipTunia on AstroBin if you want to add me or write to confirm I took this.

Taken with two scopes, total of 6 hours 39 minutes integration. Bortle 2.8, rural, north east Oregon farm.

This photo was done OSC (one-shot color), no filters, natural color. Did no Star Reduction. Tried it but liked it better without.

I use an IR modified DSLR, a Canon 90D, RedCat 51 telescope (250 mm), and Astro-Tech AT80ED (488 mm when adjusted for field flattener.) Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount. Guiding scope: ZWO 30mm Mini Guider Scope.

Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini. SharpCap on laptop for polar align and plate solving live. Used Phd2 on laptop for guiding.

All 60-second exposures, 800 ISO. Shot these this summer, previously output as two different images.

Went through images manually to remove any that had odd framing, were blurry (usually at the start of session before tracking gets good), or there was a cloud or airplane. Deleted any of those. I know it can be done automatically in DSS or in PixInsight, but I”m new enough to get a kick out of seeing each image and doing it myself.)

Stacked each scope set in DSS. Brought in lights, darks, flats, and dark flats I took during the session. Used defaults from there.

It’s been cloudy now for over a month where I live so I decided to reprocess and combine both scopes’ shots.

Brought output TIFF from each scope into PixInsight. Registered together in StarAlingment using one as reference for both.

Staked in ImageIntegration. First made copy of each since least you can stack is 3 images. Got one combined stacked Tiff, took into:

–AutoBackgroundExtractor. Target Image Correction (on bottom), Correction: set to DIVISION

Drag triangle onto image.

Delete ABE Background and Original file. Work now on (filename)_ABE

close AutoBackgroundExtractor.

–On ScreenTransferFunction, hit “Nuke” symbol

–Used RangeSelect / HDR MultiscaleTransform to bring out details while protecting core of M31 and M110 from being blown out.

–Applied BlurXterminator, with defaults.

–ColorCalibration / ColorCalibration. Hit little “document” icon (with nothing inside) at top below “workspace”.

Pick darkest small area of image, make a box.

On ColorCalibration, go down to BackGround Reference.

Click box to right of drop down area. Pick Preview01. Hit OK.

Change BackGround Reference Upper Limit to: 0.0050000

Drag triangle onto image.

close ColorCalibration.

============

ScreenTransferFunction: LINK LINK LINK and Nuke.

=====

SCNR. Drag triangle onto image. (set to green) close SCNR. or skip if you want to leave some green.

–(still open): ScreenTransferFunction. Stay linked. Hit + Click on color bar to Zoom a few times. Click Arrow. Hit arrow left / top right, then Slide to change Background color.

–HistogramTransformation

Drag ScreenTransferFunction triangle onto HistogramTransformation bottom of gray bar at bottom of entire window.

–Drag HistogramTransformation triangle to image. Image turns white.

–ScreenTransferFunction reset. Bottom values should now be higher.

–Applied NoiseXterminator with defaults.

OUTPUT UNCOMPRESSED TIFF, pick 16 bit, the default is always 32 bit.
Bring into Photoshop, increase contrast, brightness, and saturation a tiny bit on whole image.

Did cropping to remove some space where not a lot was happening, to make M31 take up more of image.

Here’s my photo of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), the closest galaxy to us.

The many things marked PGC_____ are tiny (to us) galaxies that are much further away. Next to each catalog number is a little circle or cross point showing the location. In some you can actually see a tiny oval or dot.

M31 is 2.537 million light years away. The tiny ones are probably 50 to 100 light years away, maybe further.

I got inspired to start looking for these when I saw a Tweet by OG astro-man Jack B. Newton, of the pic below. It’s a section of his photo of M45 where he had manually found and circled a bunch of these little gems. I was amazed, called him, and chatted a bit. That started me looking for them everywhere. I can find most of these in my pix of M45 too, even though I’m new to all this (4 months) and my shots aren’t as good.

I think part of the reason Jack is able to find all these is BECAUSE he’s old-school…. He doesn’t do any star reduction. Star reduction is done in most modern astro photos, to let you see the “target” better. But it eliminates some of these because they’re so small, the algo thinks they’re stars. Jack condsiders ALL of it the “target”, he just takes pix in a Bortle 1 with a giant scope, and processes them with, as he put it “very simple tools.”

These little gems just show me how vast the universe is, and how stunning it is that I can find them from my backyard with a DSLR, scope, and mount. It’s an almost religious feeling to me, and I’m agnostic.

Some men buy a sports car and have an affair for a midlife crisis. My midlife crisis is searching for distant galaxies.

Here’s Jack’s photo: