Melodyne inventor Peter Neubäcker (film portrait)

A video that should be of particular interest to musicians interesting in musical instrument intonation - aka - microtuning...



Melodyne Editor 2.0 is simply one of the greatest technological and musical advances of recent times with regard to changing the underlying intonation systems in audio files. To be completely amazed, watch the video on True Scale & Tuning on the Celemony site.

Melodyne Editor 2.0

The possibilities for xenharmonic and microtonal music are truly staggering to consider.

I'm personally very curious as to how well Melodyne Editor can handle changing the intonation in musical scenarios that might include non-harmonic timbres and ensemble textures that prominently feature them.

j:l

Xenharmonic FMTS VSTi 1.1 | Maintenance Update

 Xenharmonic FMTS VSTi

An FM Synthesis VSTi for the Creation of Microtonal and Xenharmonic Music

Has been updated to Version 1.1

Enhancements and bug fixes:

• Added exponential response to the Filter 1 Cutoff Frequency control slider.

• Added 60 total automation targets for host DAW automation. Automation targets are included for: ADSR, FM-RM Oscilllator Algorithm, Effects Section, Filter Section, Global and Local Microtuning, Operator Waveforms and Oscillator Section.

• Added Phase Center slider for the Phase/Pulse Width Oscillator LFO.

• Added more presets.

• Added more microtunings.

• Added more partials files.

• Update to manual.

• Improvement to FM-RM oscillator quality, especially in the bass range.

• Changed name of Detune effect to Ensemble.

• Enhancement to UI graphics to make visually crisper.

• New Plugin ID. Due to the number of internal enhancements, patches created with v.1.0 are not compatible with 1.1

• Fixed Operator Keyboard Tracking Slider bug.

• Fixed Frequency Limit bug that could cause clipping under certain circumstances.

Download Xenharmonic FMTS VSTi 1.1

Enjoy!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT XEN-ARTS SOFTWARE

Please note that Xen-Arts software never has been, and never will be, infected with computer viruses - this we promise. If your virus software ever indicates that our microtonal music software has a virus, this is what is known as a False Positive. Contacting the developer of your virus software to make them aware of the false positive is the best solution.

New Album: VA ~ Subversio (Dubbhism Deluxe)

Dubbhism, Split Notes and Xen-Arts

proudly presents

 

release announcement on dubbhism:

VA ~ Subversio (Dubbhism Deluxe)

VA ~ Subversio (Dubbhism Deluxe) by ~ dubbhism ~

Other news...

This week there will be a maintenance update to the Xenharmonic FMTS VSTi. For those who have been using version 1.0, you may be interested in the the many exciting enhancements in the upcoming 1.1 release. Check out the notes from Tony Dubshot on the Subversio page for details of what will come.

While you are over at the Dubbhism web, don't forget to also check out the new xenharmonic tracks on Tony Dubshot's latest solo release, The Circuit Bender ~ Timpani.

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 4

Back in 2005 I wrote a short TUN tutorial that was published on the Scala home page, which was originally written for the manual of the LinPlug CronoX VSTi. Since that time, Manuel Op de Coul (the developer of Scala) has added many new and helpful features that make it easier than ever to create the microtuning format files for retuning electronic hardware and software musical instruments.

This new article greatly expands upon the information in the original TUN tutorial and presents a sequence of exercises for the creation of the TUN microtuning format files used for exploring alternative intonation systems in many popular microtunable virtual instruments, and covers how the frequencies of microtonal tunings are mapped to specific MIDI Note Numbers, as well as demonstrating many important new features and functions of the Scala application.  

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 4 | Creating TUN Files

The TUN microtuning format was invented by Mark Henning who is also the developer of the AnaMark VSTi synthesizer, which was first published with TUN support on February 19, 2003, making it one of the earliest VSTi supporting full-controller microtuning tables. The TUN format is an elegant solution for retuning MIDI controlled virtual instruments to alternative intonation systems, because both the MIDI Note Number on which the 1/1 starting note of the microtuning will be placed - and - the MIDI Note Number on which the Reference Frequency will be placed, can be freely specified, and is embedded within a single text file that is read by the instrument.

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 3

This article discusses some of the popular microtuning file formats and is intended for computer musicians and composers who are using MIDI controlled virtual instruments to compose microtonal and xenharmonic music.

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 3 | Formats and Features

Recently a close colleague was researching the available options for buying a portable keyboard with the requirements that it should include both a built-in synthesizer and feature full-controller, MIDI pitch microtuning. After some investigation, we discovered that there are actually no consumer keyboards currently being manufactured that meet this criteria. That's right – as far as we could discern – there are precisely zero portable hardware keyboards being made at this moment, anywhere on the planet, that feature full MIDI pitch microtuning, and this leads to an important realization: there are currently three options for musicians and composers wishing to explore the exciting possibilities of using alternative intonation systems in their music:

1. Get into carpentry and learn how to build custom microtonal acoustic instruments, or otherwise purchase them from other builders. With the latter, for instance, there are a number of options for buying extremely high quality microtonal guitars, and or fret-boards that can be fitted to existing guitars that feature bolt-on necks, such as those manufactured by luthier and guitarist Ron Sword. Building your own instruments though can be a lot of fun, and one can be guaranteed to learn a lot about the physics of sound in the process. I would highly recommend exploring this possibility if you have access to the tools and skills.

2. Buy some of the older used hardware keyboards, such as ones previously manufactured by Yamaha, which, in their golden years, actually featured full-controller MIDI pitch microtuning. It's perhaps the most surprising of all that Yamaha – who were previously one of the more innovative leaders in portable microtonal keyboard design and manufacturing – now offers no instruments that feature it and seem to basically only support the status quo of twelve-tone-equal-temperament hegemony. When choosing this option for microtuning, one will need a bit of luck in finding and maintaining these antique instruments, which in many cases may have been manufactured decades ago. Buying old used hardware gear that supports full-controller microtuning is something that should be approached with the greatest caution and is something that this article cannot recommend for those who are getting started with microtonal music composition.

3. Use computers and virtual instruments. It pretty much goes without saying, that as far as technological innovation is concerned, this is where the action is for xenharmonic and microtonal music creation, and there are a number of developers offering full-controller microtuning features in their software. All that is required is having a fairly current computer and a decent external MIDI controller.

The primary concern of this article is with microtuning virtual instruments that feature (what are sometimes called) microtuning tables, which essentially are lists of pitch values that the synthesizer reads in order to re-map the default pitches of MIDI Notes to other intonation systems. But it is important to not skip over the fact that there are other options available. Here is a quick overview of some of these possibilities:

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 2

This article is intended for computer musicians and composers who are getting started with making microtonal and xenharmonic music using MIDI controlled virtual instruments that feature full-controller microtuning, and seeks to define what it means to be able to fully microtune an instrument to any conceivable intonation system.

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 2 | MIDI Pitch Microtuning

With the profusion of alternative electronic musical instrument controllers we have available today, I've been compelled to consider other, and perhaps more all encompassing terms, for what many microtonal composers, theorists and musicians have long called full-keyboard microtuning. Possibilities could be something like 'full-controller microtuning', or even more to the point, MIDI Pitch Microtuning.

For purposes of discussion, this article will use MIDI Pitch Microtuning, or MPM, to indicate what is one of the most important features required for any virtual instrument that is intended for serious microtonal and xenharmonic music composition.

But what exactly is MIDI Pitch Microtuning?

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 1

This short article about pitch notation standards is primarily targeted at computer musicians who are interested in making microtonal and xenharmonic music with software plug-in instruments, and since I've not seen this information compiled in a concise form before on the web, I thought publishing this on Xen-Arts would be a good first step in a series of future microtuning tutorials. Very special thanks goes out to X.J. Scott for his deep insight into matters related to musical instrument intonation, and for helping to compile the lists of musical hardware and software developers detailed here.

Microtuning Virtual Instruments - Part 1 | MIDI Notes, Pitches and Notation Standards

An important foundation for making music with alternative intonation systems is having an understanding of how the pitches of 12 Tone Equal Temperament are mapped to MIDI Notes, because this is the default tuning of most software plug-in instruments and the starting point from which we will re-tune, or microtune, to other intonations.

Another dimension of the way specific pitches are mapped to MIDI Notes is considering the various Pitch Notation Standards, of which there are three in current popular usage: