Everybody wants their own fingering

Use this forum to report bugs or request new features for WARBL, including fingering chart suggestions.
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gonzoB
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Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by gonzoB »

OK, here's an idea...

On the Aerophone you can set your own finger combinations to get notes that you want. It's a great feature, because everyone is unhappy with some aspect of the standard fingerings.

On the WARBL, to get the fingering you like you can either:
a) convince Andrew to build it into the next release
b) adjust one of the standard fingerings and compile/install yourself.

How about this:
Andrew builds a web tool to design your own fingering - not too hard - just a list of all the possible fingerings with a choice of the note you want.
Andrew adds another fingering choice called "User"
The user updates the custom fingering, presses a button, and a custom-compiled version of the firmware is e-mailed to user, who can install it using the usual methods.
Easy! Maybe a charge for "custom user" status?

Gonzo
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Gonzo Projects Page: https://gonzos.net/projects
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admin
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by admin »

Sorry, I thought I had replied to this, but I guess I never did :). I’m not sure how to automate the process of adding a fingering chart and compiling the software, and there are some other things in the code that are specific to each fingering pattern other than just the chart.

However, in the next firmware release I do hope to add the option to make a simple custom fingering chart. It was suggested elsewhere in the forum a while back: There will be a simple tin-whistle-like pattern, and you’ll be able to assign any MIDI note to each of the fingerings. It won’t be exactly like having control over every possible fingering combination, but I think it will be quite versatile.
Andrew Mowry
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by admin »

The custom fingering chart feature that I mentioned above is now available for testing in beta v. 2.0:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=214
Andrew Mowry
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elg
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by elg »

How about a feature that would load the fingering chart as a text file, compile it on the server, and load it into a special reserved custom keyboard slot in the WARBL? Or possibly allow the definition to replace any existing KB, though this could be tricky if simpler ones are allocated less space in the flash memory.

This would be much easier for users than fully recompiling the firmware and flashing the whole thing. It would entail editing the text file for the KB definition, (presumably starting with an example template), but then it would just be a normal web file upload in the browser.
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by admin »

The main sticking point is that the memory used for storing fingering charts is the same as where the firmware is located, and it all has to be written at once. The location of the user settings (EEPROM) can be rewritten at any time but is very small. The new “custom” fingering option can be stored there because it is very simplistic, but there’s not room for a complete fingering chart. Someday there will probably be a version of WARBL with more memory for storing charts, but that is in the distant future (years) largely because of the ongoing chip shortage.
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elg
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by elg »

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. I plan to compile in the EWI chart that gonzoB posted a while back. It's important to me to have the fingering as similar as possible to the EWI as I'm confused enough already.

BTW, I love the fact that the WARBL fingering is so fleixible that you can set up modal scales in the usual fingering pattern for major. Tho you can set it to any key, the EWI is locked into major scale.
andyana
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Re: Everybody wants their own fingering

Post by andyana »

I'm happy with altering the finger pattern file, as long as I can get some guidance now and then. For an Irish flute player, the warbl has some advantage in that irregular fingerings and the differences between the 1st and 2nd octave fingerings are removed, and other fingerings where notes such as the F -F# pair, and the G#2 which are a bit out of tune are corrected by other note/key cominations. The downside of this is that if you want to use the Warbl as silent practice instrument particularly to work on difficult fingering patterns faced on the acoustic flute then its not going to fit that use. I think I will treat it as new instrument altogether. The 3rd octave fingerings are typically not the same as the 1st and 2nd octave for each note. Copying what happens on the flute, I think these should only be available when the breath pressure level is greater than that for C# 2nd octave.
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