Negative harmony

I just uploaded a MIDI effect to the UL which performs a "negative harmony" transformation to the MIDI input:
https://www.native-instruments.com/es/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/entry/show/11245/

The idea came after watching this interview to Jacob Collier here:


and as far as i got to know, this is a rather old concept, very central to composers like Bela Bartok and many jazz musicians.

Have you ever worked with this concept in your compositions?

 

Is there a simple summary about exactly what it does? Just seems like it reverses the MIDI notes but I don't get what the axis part of it is? Thanks for any clarification!

 

That's what I wanted to know. Surely its not as simple as plain note inversion... Is it?

 

Hey all!
let's think you have the sequence C3, C#3, E3, F3, A3

if you define E3 as your mirror axis you will get:

G#3, G3, E3, D#3, B2

basically what the algorithm does is to "count" semitones from the axis center to the other notes, and if in the original version it was ascending on the mirrored version it will be descending.
Again, taking E3 as a mirror axis:

E3, F3, A3 ---> E3, D#3, B2

I don't know if that's plain note inversion or note. For sure it is not a classical chord invertion!

 

Hey, thank for the tool, but how can I apply it in Logic X Pro?
I tried loading it into Reaktor and then use it in the Midi FX slot - nothing happens.
Please let me know. Thanks!

 

Hi crankittonite!
I'm sorry i won't be of much help, as i am not a user of Logic.... i completely ignore how the MIDI FX thing works, sorry!
I usually work with Reaper, there it works as it's supposed to.

Maybe some experienced Logic user can help us with this?

good luck!

 

Ok, the question is then,
do you need to load some other things in Reaktor besides the specular.ens?
If so - what is it you need and what are the steps please?
I suppose you need some kind of synth playing your midi arrangement and the specular.ens is just a plug in module that flips everything over?

 

Ah! of course!
This is a MIDI effect, so it doesn't generate any sound.
To make it work you need to route the midi output of this ensemble to some synth or sampler.

It basically reads incoming MIDI (coming from your piano roll for example) and reverses it on the output. Therefore, the output needs to be routed somewhere else. I ignore how to perform this in Logic, but i'm sure there might be many tutorials on MIDI FX usage for Logic....

The basic scheme would be:

MIDI from piano roll ---> Reaktor ---> Synth

hope this helps,

s