KVR Audio

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:30 pm

A coworker and I have been discussing various microtonal things today. He would like to be able to experiment with various ways of dividing an octave but is not into VSTs, etc.

Is there a freeware standalone synth that will allow him to import SCALA type information and hear the results?

We're aware of this page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/

Any help is appreciated.

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:46 pm

I see that RGCAudio has Z3TA+ which will take Scala info as well as operate in Hermode Tuning mode. But it's $99.

http://www.rgcaudio.com/z3ta%2B.htm

http://www.hermode.de/

Xenakios · Post by **Xenakios** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 8:52 pm

There is a front-end for Csound called "Blue" that has a piano-roll capable of displaying and playing back (any?) Scala-tuning. Unfortunately using Blue could mean lot's of headaches figuring out Csound-related things...

http://www.csounds.com/stevenyi/blue/

-X

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:25 pm

Xenakios wrote:There is a front-end for Csound called "Blue" that has a piano-roll capable of displaying and playing back (any?) Scala-tuning. Unfortunately using Blue could mean lot's of headaches figuring out Csound-related things...

http://www.csounds.com/stevenyi/blue/

-X

Cool. Thanks! He's a programmer, so it might not be as daunting to him as it would be to me or an average VST user. I'm spoiled, and just like playing with synths, not making them. lol

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:34 pm

Fractal Tunesmithy
http://www.robertinventor.com/fts_download.htm#dl

Scala
http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/

The combined scala/tunesmith installer from Harmony Central
http://www.harmony-central.com/Software ... actal.html

There has been a change to the installer, the Gtk+ runtime has been removed and it must be downloaded and installed separately. To do so, go to
http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

MidiOx to route things to FTS then back into your standalone:
http://www.midiox.com/

Now keep in mind that being that it uses instant pitchbend messages to do scala tunings (and scala files can be created with scala by assigning each note a Hz value, a fractional value of the root or a decimal (such as how equal temperament doesn't use a 1/5 interval, it's a different less-pure math which I'm sure you know and know why, too, but I'm posting with others in mind, too) so you can split the octave any old way you want (even Partch 43/diapson) but that means it's monophonic as pitch bend isn't polyphonic.

So, the workaround is to use a DAW with multiple instances loaded. FTS will send the next note played to a different channel so that it receives it's proper pitchbend, too. I've made a tutorial on how to set up this "multitimbrally" in FLStudio on The Auditorium in the past and it's pretty easy. If you set it up in an intelligent way your non-VST-utilizing friend should be able to have a fairly sensible set-up (write it out on paper for the poor chap!) each time he opens the programs.

And, of course, feel free to contact me if you end up trying this (I swear by it!) and have more questions.

- runagate

Shane Sanders · Post by **Shane Sanders** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:43 pm

Thanks runagate! I'll pass this info along.

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:54 pm

Shane Sanders wrote:Thanks runagate! I'll pass this info along.

Now that I think about it, you must also sort out how to do the realtime retuning mode in FTS.
If they're not PC-knowledgable it may be a little too frustrating for them to figure out alone.
It's not super-hard, but we as audio/midi obsessed weirdos take a lot for granted without ever realizing it.

I should write another tutorial.

I'll do it at home tonight if I have the time. Stupid RL.

It's not hard once you have it set up. It's brilliant. But navigating the weirdness of FTS which was made outside the world of our DAWs is a little strange.

DrApostropheX · Post by **DrApostropheX** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:13 pm

Does Crystal use Scala files? I know Cameleon 5000 and Wusik both do.

Whatever you do, don't look to Van Halen for advice on microtonal music.

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:36 pm

there used to be a list in the scala website, i beleive crystal was included in that list..

..a simple vst could be made with 12 ratios... :p

tamahome · Post by **tamahome** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:31 am

Zynaddsubfx supports scala .scl and .kbm files, and it's free:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/zynadd ... g_mirror=0

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:41 pm

I know some of us started a scala-supporting VSTi list thread quite a while back.

The beauty of FTS is that you needn't settle for a specific VSTi. You can microtune whatever instrument you'd intended to use in the first place.

xoxos' models shimmer in microtonal modes!

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:21 pm

So did this work out for your friend?

I was asked by a mathametician yesterday about fractal rhythms and so was poking around in FTS's other functionality.

terriandralph · Post by **terriandralph** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:29 pm

Just looking at old messages around Christmastime . . .

Just wanted to let anybody who is interested know that Crystal is not capable of microtuning.

Just to be helpful, I've posted the list from the Scala site that was mentioned earlier . . .

http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/

tamahome · Post by **tamahome** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:29 pm

They just ported this to windows:

http://linuxsampler.org

It's free and standalone, but you have to microtune it through standard MIDI GS SysEx messages. I think Scala can export to that format.

runagate · Post by **runagate** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:48 pm

Shane Sanders wrote:
Xenakios wrote:There is a front-end for Csound called "Blue" that has a piano-roll capable of displaying and playing back (any?) Scala-tuning. Unfortunately using Blue could mean lot's of headaches figuring out Csound-related things...

http://www.csounds.com/stevenyi/blue/

-X
Cool. Thanks! He's a programmer, so it might not be as daunting to him as it would be to me or an average VST user. I'm spoiled, and just like playing with synths, not making them. lol

Since I came in search of this info I thought I may as well bump it up for others to see.

microtonal question