Practical Microtonal Music Making

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Practical Microtonal Music Making 2012-12-02T18:00:58+00:00 Hello to the handful of people of people who bother to read this thread! I am going to try to show how simple it is to incorporate microtonal music into your productions using a digital audio workstation. One reason that I am doing this is that I have noticed that in the virtual world, when you search for infromation about "microtonal music" you seem to find almost nothing but mystification and math. This is simply bizarre, as humans have been making microtonal music since time immemorial. First of all, what do people mean by "microtonal"? Literally it means "tiny little step sizes". So understandably people assume it means things like 24 musical steps in an octave instead of the usual twelve. Nowadays by "microtonal" people usually mean simply "different than the standard Western 12-tone equal temperament". The definition I use is a "spirit of the law" kind of definition: using different tunings for different feelings. This- tuning is about feeling- is how tuning was done in the ancient world, and still is done in the traditional musics of the Middle East and India. The "micro" part is really a side effect of doing this, because you might not be using any small intervals in a tune at all, but the tuning of a note will be different in one place than it is in another, and that difference is a "microtone". "Blue notes" in the blues and jazz are a perfect example of this. The difference between a major third and a blue third is typically somewhere around "half a quartertone", sometimes more, sometimes less. That's a "microtone". Middle Eastern music has countless examples- in one makam or raga, the third note in the scale for example might be, say, about a quartertone higher or lower than it is in another makam or raga. People just learn this by ear, there's never any need to have "golden ears" because it's done by feel. Different tunings evoke or are asscociated with different feelings. Can you hear the difference between a singer singing "bluesy" or "straight"? Congratualtions, your ears are golden enough for microtonality. Technically, you are making microtonal distinctions of roughly half a quartone, and doing it effortlessly. Do not let anyone bullshit you about what you "can't hear" or try to sell you some story about how microtonality is "math". So, the first order of business if you're going to do microtonal music using your digital audio workstation is to get some kind of acoustic instrument with flexible pitch. If could be your voice, a reed instrument (saxophones are very flexible with pitch), a violin (which has no frets). A regular guitar with a slide is a good one, because you can play any pitch and you can see that slide is placed differently from the fixed 12-tone equal temperament frets. Even if you do not record this instrument, whatever instrument it is that works for you, it is important to have around so that you always have contact with the whole reason for doing microtonal music in the first place, which is feeling and hearing. Now, there are people who are mathmeticians and engineers who "have a personal relationship" with math. Their "true soul music" might be all about math, and I respect that. That kind of thing is outside whatever expertise I might have, though. Okay, the next step is to check and see which synthesizers or samplers, hardware or software, you have which "support microtonality". Pitchbend wheels are very common. If you're skilled with a pitchbend wheel, congratulations, you're already a "microtonal musician" even if you never realized it. Few hardware synthesizers support microtuning other than having pitchbend or a ribbon controller. This is ironic, as the synthesizer which is generally credited as being the first ever, a century ago, the Telharmonium, was built for the express purpose of being able to play microtonal music (it had 36 tones to the octave). The ability to play microtonal music was a major motivating force in the original development of electronic instruments. The Yamaha DX-7II has excellent microtonal support. Old Ensoniqs have very good microtonal support. There's a list of the tuning capabilities of many hardware synths here: http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com/ Many software synthesizers support any tuning you want, via the .tun format. Unless anyone has specific questions about specific other tuning formats, this is the format I'll be addressing in this thread, because it is so widely available. So, check out which of your synths support the .tun format. Okay, I think that's enough the moment, I'll be back asap to continue. Aroused by JarJar https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=191505

BipTunia BipTunia https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=422302: KVRer; 23 posts since 9 Jul, 2018

Post by BipTunia » Tue Nov 20, 2018 12:09 pm

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Article: "Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think"
https://producelikeapro.com/blog/gettin ... nal-music/

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