microtonal question

[LauraMichelJarre]

In terms of hardware...

If I recall, the Yamaha DX7 MKII enabled various forms of microtuning (preset temperaments).

Also, in 1976 the Korg Polyphonic Ensemble had 180 oscillators (3 per note) and you could microtune it from a removable strip below the keyboard (60 notes / 60 screwdriver pots for individual key tuning).

As to Vsti's I'm not really familiar with any that do.

[bwong]

A few more microtonal capable VSTi include Anamark, Rapture, Astralis, Pianoteq. There are definitely others as well. Note that some use .tun files instead of .scl files, which can be exported from Scala (with a specified exact base frequency). Csound/blue is also an excellent option if you have some basic programming skills and like the idea of programming your own software synthesizers. But be prepared to put in some serious study time if you want to learn Csound/blue.

At the following URL you can check out some of my microtonal pieces :

http://www.mediafire.com/brianwong

Anamark pieces include Clackhere (12TET), Mananark, and Wannakkrrakker. Csound/blue pieces include RappersRequiem and RubberMusicBox. You can find more of my noises and information about the tunings I use at the myspace page listed in my sig.

With respect to hardware, Kyma is da bomb for microtonal. I am saving up....

[Resetti]

The new GPO 4 now accepts scala files.

[bwong]

The new GPO 4 now accepts scala files.

I believe that Wusikstation and Massive also have microtonal capability but have not tested them myself yet. I have no doubt there are many others also.

GPO 4 looks interesting, can I get a demo version if I go through their online registration process?

[WilliamK]

Yeah, Wusik Station has TUN support (Scala files) and comes with a very big library of TUN files. It has a file-browser which allows you to browse the library in a very easy way. And since the last update, you can select a TUN file, and browse for sounds and presets, and it will keep the loaded TUN file you have selected.

Wk

[bwong]

Thanks William, I downloaded and played around a bit with Wusikstation and really like it so far! I look forward to further exploring this product.

One point, both here and on your website you describe .tun as "Scala" files. This may be a bit confusing for beginners, so I will elaborate a bit, though I am quite sure you know all this.

Native Scala files have an .scl extension and Scala can also produce .kbm (keyboard map) files. The .tun format is properly known as Vaz/Anamark tuning files, though Scala CAN export .tun files. I prefer .tun because it can achieve what the combination of .scl and .kbm files are required to do, mainly set exact base frequency and exact frequencies for specific midi keys.

One thing you might not know (but you probably do) is that Mark Henning has recently released the specs for v2.0 of the .tun spec on his website ( www.mark-henning.de ). It has additional features, most significantly (to me) it includes the capability of assigning different tunings to different midi channels.

If you do go to Mark's website, please check out my song Mananark if you have time, recently added as an example of microtonal composition.

[Winstontaneous]

You can load Scala files into VAZ Modular. What's particularly cool is that you can either do it globally (all synths per bank), per synth, OR as an input to the Quantize module, which can then feed any other module.

Another way to get outside equal temperament is to use a synth that lets you scale oscillator frequency via harmonic partial number instead of semitones (common for FM and some wavetable oscs).