#83

@eblomquist not sure if your request was directed at me but i was referring to the scale-conversion that @karol gifted us

it’s super nice!

1 Like
#84

Thanks! I’m feeling the slow but inescapable approach of a Teletype…

1 Like
#85

Looking for some microtonal advice here. I play an EWI (4000s) and would love to make it a quarter tone EWI. Thus far I’ve managed to achieve quarter-tones with the pitch bend plates, but long term this is untenable as playing anything fast is very difficult. What I’d really like to do is hack one by adding a quarter tone up or quarter tone down button. I realize software synths (controlled via midi) is one thing and the onboard analog modeling synth would be another. But I dont even know what direction to look

Any ideas on roads to go down to make this a reality?

I appreciate any advice

#86

most immediate solution wd be Scala files. several VSTs admit them, most commonly Kontakt and several Native Instruments plugins, eg FM8 (though one has to convert them to readable sysex; can be done here http://www.microtonalsoftware.com/scl-scala-to-mts-converter.html

there’s also the Retune m4l patch http://maxforlive.com/library/device/3068/retune-for-live. doesn’t really work for polyphony and the envelopes can be wonky depending on to what VST theyre applied but it’d probably work well enough in your case.

#87

I was not able to figure out how to use Scala files in Kontakt, last time I tried. Do you know how?
Edit: I seem to have overlooked the part about the Sysex dump, I’ll look into it thanks!

#88

yeah, I forgot they don’t support direct import of .scl files. or, they do, but it’s a bit convoluted. some useful info here. (tbh I haven’t used Kontakt in years so I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it)

list of hardware and soft-synths w/ Scala compatibility

sforzando also accepts .scl files directly. works great.

I wish LPX supported .scl import natively … smh.

#89

Well dang. A totally edit-able mircotonal engineering system, under our noses this whole time.

7 Likes
#90

Seems unnecessarily complicated. Tune to an open chord, use movable tie-on frets. It’s worked fine for most of the world for thousands of years.

#91

Take another look - I don’t think tie-on frets can zig-zag across the fretboard the way those do.

#92

Sure, I understand that. But there is no inherent need to zigzag across the fretboard – unless you want to compose microtonal music that involves playing a lot of chords with a lot of harmonic modulation. Which is a huge commitment in both composing time and acquiring new technique. Very few people are going to go that way. Kudos to those few extremists who do that though. My hat is off to them.

But for us less committed weirdos: If you’re willing to play modally without key changes, then use tie-on frets with a drone tuning, and play up and down the strings instead of across positions. This way you can enjoy playing microtonal music with very little need to acquire new playing technique. You only need adjust your ear. It’s much, much easier, and for me just as fun. More fun actually, since it’s less work.

The Persian setar is my personal favorite of plucked microtonal fretted instruments. My favorite bowed fretted instrument is the dilruba, aka esraj. I play both of these quite often. It has profoundly changed my approach to guitar.

2 Likes
#93

If you’re comfortable with playing modally without key changes etc. more power to you. Some great music is made that way. But saying that Tolgahan Çoğulu’s approach is “overly complicated” is off base. It’s as complicated as it needs to be for his classical-plus-microtones musical goals.

#94

I don’t think I said anything was “overly complicated”. Just the opposite–I’m all for getting into the weeds.

Tolgahan’s music is very much based in Turkish modes, adapted from instruments with movable tied frets. It’s exactly the kind of stuff I was referring to. He wants to adapt the folk music of his country to the solo classical guitar repertoire, and so needs the fretting system he does. He builds his instruments the way he does to preserve the tone of the classical guitar, and to allow for solo guitar arrangements in the classical tradition.

But that folk music originates on much simpler tied fret instruments. My impression is that most of the folks in this forum have fairly catholic interests in music. And you can get 85% of what Tolgahan does with a much simpler instrument. Just take a normal guitar, rip off the frets, and tie nylon frets to it. Tune the strings to some flavor of open C, adjust the frets to your preferred tuning, and have fun.

#95

I would love to hear some opinions about the Tubbutec microtonal module.

#96

I don’t think I said anything was “overly complicated”. Just the opposite–I’m all for getting into the weeds.

I misquoted you, though not in a way that distorts the sense - you said “unnecessarily”, not “overly”, thus:

Seems unnecessarily complicated. Tune to an open chord, use movable tie-on frets. It’s worked fine for most of the world for thousands of years.

Moving on:

you can get 85% of what Tolgahan does with a much simpler instrument. Just take a normal guitar, rip off the frets, and tie nylon frets to it. Tune the strings to some flavor of open C, adjust the frets to your preferred tuning, and have fun.

I respectfully disagree with your 85% figure. If anyone can play Bach in Just Intonation 5 limit with nylon strings tuned to an open C, I would really like to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyQaSFgnVI8

1 Like
#97

I love the Tubbutec. While many promised features are not fully implemented yet (auto-tuning procedure for oscillators) all the main things work fine. It’s a very exact tuner, you can easilly check out scales using your midi keyboard and it’s bidirectional midi-to-cv.

Highly recommended.

LC

3 Likes
#98

Really enjoyed this podcast:

3 Likes
#99

Listened to these guys nerding out https://nowandxen.libsyn.com/29268-cents-kite-giedraitis-aaron-wolf-spencer-hargraves-jacob-collier about this https://en.xen.wiki/w/The_Kite_Guitar this morning and now I want one

3 Likes
#100

3/30/20 Sheets updated w/ Peak columns fix

I have a few microtonal synths and never fancied the rather arcane installation instructions for Scala on the Mac (XQuartz?) and don’t like involving a computer into my music workflow more than I have to. Plus it’s fun and educational to see all the numbers laid out in front of me. So I created these spreadsheets.

EDO Template (1).ods (48.8 KB)

Ratio Tuning Template (1).ods (36.2 KB)

Shruthi_Tuning (1).ods (51.4 KB)

Shruthi Tuning (example - read only)

Each of these sheets calculates the cents offsets for each note, and then translates that into the format used for entry on each synth. So far, the Peak, DX7 E!, and Minilogue / Minilogue XD / Monologue / Prologue formats are included.

The sheets are pretty straightforward to use. For the EDO sheet there are cells at the bottom to input an A reference tuning and the number of divisions per octave. Right now it’s got a 19 EDO tuning in there.

For the Ratio tunings, you will need to pick a reference tuning, put that in the appropriate cell (cell d72 for A5), copy that value to each cell for that octave, and then double or have it for the octaves above and below. Then enter your ratios for each note. (Or, you could put the same reference value in for every note, and double or have the Numerators of each ratio, but that seems like more work). Check the example tuning - note that the example tuning uses C as the reference, not A, while starting the octave (1:1) at E - just to show that can be done.

The example tuning was derived from Alain Danielou, Music and the Power of Sound .

It should be easy enough to modify the EDO sheet to get non-octave equal division scales, such as Carlos’s Alpha, but I haven’t done that yet.

Putting these in by hand for multiple synths is a bit laborious. For the DX7 E! I have no choice but for the others it should be possible to save the sheet as a CSV and have a parser generate a MTS sysex file. Haven’t tried that yet either.

Regarding the parser - if anyone has documentation for sending tuning files into the Minilogue or the Peak please pass it along! Neither synth accepts an MTS bulk tuning file and I am hoping not to have to install the librarian software for those synths and sniff the packets to find out what’s going on.

Anyway, please comment if you find this interesting. I’ve been feeling rather invisible lately with social distancing. :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#101

As someone with a DX7 and a friend with a Peak, I thank you so much for this.

#102

Thanks for sharing this!

I think because the sheets are read-only, it doesn’t seem possible to clone the spreadsheets or inspect the formulas in the cells. Maybe there is a more portable way to share this?