Microtuning: Which tables do we "need"?

[j0hnny]

Any Tunings made or used by composers/musicians like Riley, Carlos & La Mont Young are always worth considering too.

[j0hnny]

I also have a collection of tunings which are out-of-tune versions of the standard 12 tone equal which sound great through Zebra and Diva. They help loosen things up, sound less stale and more analog.

[Howard]

I also have a collection of tunings which are out-of-tune versions of the standard 12 tone equal which sound great through Zebra and Diva. They help loosen things up, sound less stale and more analog.

Those are likely to be useful too - can I have a copy?

[Aroused by JarJar]

That's what people usually mean by "microtuning": alternative tunings. I prefer the concept "tuning according to your artistic goals rather than using a default inherited system".

Yeah, there seem to be various categories of microtonal application. It might be nice to have these clearly separated in file structure - something like: temperament, instrument-related, derivatives of 12-tone Western scale, ethnomusicology, and the truly-odd-and-somewhat-unstable?

Camel Audio had a nice set for Alchemy that IIRC plays pretty well with Zebra.

That's a great idea. The thing about tunings is that they're meaningless without ways of using them. When you see something like "19 equal" is just a mass of small intervals unless you approach them in a certain way. When you approach them via 1/3 comma meantone, there's nothing strange or unwieldly about it, it's normal- sounding for 16th-century European music (or you can make a whole new way of using them, which is a LOT of work unless you're just doing some combinatorics/mathturbaton).

[spacecult]

Fun/funny ones would be "bad analog intonation".

[j0hnny]

Those are likely to be useful too - can I have a copy?

Sure, will email.

[HiEnergy]

mathturbaton

Where can I learn this? I want to play those new scales...

[KBSoundSmith]

mathturbaton

Where can I learn this? I want to play those new scales...

The fastest way to musimathical ecstasy is a secret detour to the musical back alleys of post-tonal theory. You'll find an exotic, exclusive club for those in the know (and they're almost exclusively men, whether or not that does it for you). Great pleasure awaits.

[Sendy]

mathturbaton

Where can I learn this? I want to play those new scales...

The fastest way to musimathical ecstasy is a secret detour to the musical back alleys of post-tonal theory. You'll find an exotic, exclusive club for those in the know (and they're almost exclusively men, whether or not that does it for you). Great pleasure awaits.

Well that escalated quickly.

[todd_r]

Hi gang

I've been wanting to compile a bunch of "useful" microtuning scales, to be included as presets in u-he synths. Every time I tried, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number available. Impossible to judge.

Does anyone here have some tips - or better, a good all-round collection with fewer than e.g. 50?

BTW: I guess the presets should include Werckmeister, Kirnberger, Vallotti-Young etc.

Also need to think about different key-centers...

Hi Howard, did you get any further with this? Been looking into different temperaments recently but the number available is pretty overwhelming. A pack of essentials would be great.

[Phil999]

as a start I went through a selection of .tun files (the ones that are included in Aalto, which are all converted from the big archive from Scala) and picked the ones with 12 tones. Scala does show the number of tones of a .scl file in the 'Open File' window, you can step through them with the arrow down key. This results in around 50 files. From those I pick a few which sound interesting to my ear.

To the question why using microtonal scales:

My personal initial experience in the studio was with FM8. Having read somewhere that it has microtuning, I tried it out (bagpipe tuning preset I think), and instantly the trumpet sound started to remind me of something. I realised it sounded similar to Balkan folk music and other old European tunes I heard years ago at a festival. I realised it is not only the hypnotic sound of those old reed instruments, it is also the tuning that makes the difference. So this relatively clean FM8 sound was transformed into something quite different with this tuning preset. Not the sound patch of course, I mean the sound in general, the effect it has to the listener.

I was always focused on sound. Acoustic sound of instruments, what microphones and preamps to use, and sound patches in synthesisers. Now I'm less concerned about sound alone, I'm more interested in the instrument's tuning. A long learning path, but it gives me much pleasure. Recently bought an Oud so that I have an acoustic instrument that can be played together with FM8, Diva, Aalto, and Samplemodeling instruments. Fretless electric guitars don't seem to exist, and fretless bass guitars are quite expensive. Therefore the Oud was a good choice.

[Howard]

@Todd: No, I got sidetracked by more important work!
@ Phil: Any chance of a copy of your choices? That might just be a great collection you have there
"it is also the tuning that makes the difference." - too true.

[~Pd~]

I find one of the quickest entry points to microtuning is the equal-division scales, from 5-TET up to 24-TET and perhaps beyond. Maybe include that in a sub-folder.

Actually a folder hierarchy of scales to organize them would be smart - an equal temperament folder, a Japanese folder, one for Indian scales, one for various Western classical temperaments, one for composers' custom scales (Carlos, Partch etc.)

Whatever you decide to include, a huge round of applause to you and Urs and the crew for taking microtuning seriously and including solid .tun support in the synths.

[Phil999]

@ Phil: Any chance of a copy of your choices? That might just be a great collection you have there
"it is also the tuning that makes the difference." - too true.

well I must admit I'm in the middle of the process. But here's some of my choices so far:

Greek: dorian_schl
Indian: indian-vina, indian-vina3

In a couple of months I can tell more. It always depends on what instrument you use. And do you use it monophonically or polyphonically? The context and the way you use it is very important. For example, with Samplemodeling instruments I use these scales only monophonically. You can't play chords with a wind instrument. You all know that of course.


For reference, here is the list of the 12-tone .scala (.tun) files included in Aalto. There are lots more in the Scala archive.

Chinese:
chin_12
chin_bianzhong
chin_bianzhong2a
chin_bianzhong2b
chin_chime
chin_ching
chin_lu
chin_lu2
chin_lu3
chin_lu3a
chin_lu4
chin_lu5
chin_shierlu

European:
couperin
couperin_org
italian
jobin-bach
kirnsberger
kirnsberger1
kirnsberger2
kirnsberger3
kirnsberger3v
meister-p12
meister-s4
meister-s5
meister-synt
meister
sparschuh-equalbeating
sparschuh-wohltemperiert
werck3
zwolle

Greek:
dorian_schl
partch-greek
phrygian

Indian:
indian_12
indian-hrdaya1
indian-hrdaya2
indian-invrot
indian-vina
indian-vina3

Just Intonation:
bohlen_12
carlos_super
ji_12
ji_12a
ji_12b
riley_albion
riley_rosary
young-lm_guitar
young-lm_piano

[marvotron]

One feature related to this that I really feel is missing is to lock the currently selected tuning when changing patches. iirc Alchemy does this, so once you've chosen a scale your free to browse around and not have to keep reselecting the tuning file.