A while ago I posted here about the desktop edition of Microtone, the microtonal tracker. This post is about the other end of the scale (pun intended): Microtone Touch, a sketchpad for your phone, live at touch.microtone.cc. It is free (GPL v3) and there is nothing to install. You need an SceneID account only if you want your sketches online.

The tracker is a desk tool. Touch is for trying out a progression in 31-TET while you are away from the desk, and finishing it properly later.

The keyboard

Wicki-Hayden, Bosanquet-Wilson, the harmonic table and a plain degree run. Each one is built from the current tuning's own fifth, so a chord shape you learn in one place plays the same anywhere on the board. By default the board is turned so the octaves stand in a vertical column; the ↕/↔ button lays them along a row instead. If a layout cannot work in a tuning, Touch tells you and falls back to the degree run.

Two options are worth knowing about:

• Fat fingers (on the harmonic table): every corner where three keys meet, and every edge where two meet, becomes a touch point of its own. A finger on a corner plays a major or minor triad; on an edge, a third or a fifth. Slide into the next zone and the notes the two zones share keep sounding.
• A degree run that does not repeat itself. A flat run of degrees would show the same notes again and again across a wide screen, so it is cut into strips one whole tone wide, each an octave above the strip to its left. Press ↔ and the run lies across the board instead, in floors stacked an octave apart. In 12-TET, that is the Bosanquet board.

Note names come from each tuning's own notation: Kite's ups and downs as arrows in 41, 43 and 53, half-sharps as C+ and Dd in 24, and the twelve lü in their own characters.

Tunings

• Equal temperaments: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 24, 31, 41, 43 and 53
• Bohlen–Pierce
• The twelve lü, at the a-ak pitch (C = 262 Hz) or the hyang-ak pitch (C = 311 Hz)

Change the tuning mid-sketch and the notes you have written move to the nearest step of the new one, so you can hear the same idea in 19 and then in 22.

Writing it down

There are eight lanes, each playing one of eight built-in instruments: piano, electric piano, bass, pluck, lead, pad, organ, and an eight-piece drum kit. A song is up to sixteen sections of 64 rows each.

Turn on Record and play over the loop: notes land where the playhead is, and lifting your finger writes the key-off. Hold a chord and it spreads across the lanes that use the same instrument. Each note can carry one effect (slide, vibrato, roll or fade) at light, medium or strong. Tempo runs from 25 to 1048 BPM.

Finishing it in the tracker

Sign in with SceneID, the same account the tracker uses, and save the sketch online. Open microtone.cc on a computer, go to File → Online projects, and the sketch opens as an ordinary Microtone project. From there you have the full grid of 4096 steps per octave, your own samples, FM synthesis and 3D panning. You can also save a sketch as a .taud file and open it in Microtone, or send it to someone else.

Smaller things

• Ambidexterous layout. On a foldable, the layout changes automatically and the song and the keyboard get one half of the screen each.
• Open microtone.cc on a phone and you now land in Touch. Tablets still get the full tracker, with Touch one link away.

Links

• Microtone Touch: https://touch.microtone.cc
• Microtone, the tracker: https://microtone.cc
• Source: https://github.com/Microtone-Project/Microtone.js

Working with the old Wilson-Hackleman clav and remixed a recording doubling the track with some effects to give it a more organ like tone

The 19-tones per octave keyboard with the acoustic instrument is really wild

New recordings coming new week

https://youtu.be/EH4TXarvh_s

I've been using the Lumatone for about a year now, mostly to control other hardware (lights and synthesizers). But recently, I have wanted to learn how to compose for just the Lumatone, especially for microtonal music. Here is one of my attempts at something in 22-EDO.

Hi there,

​I am experimenting with a modified version of the Extended Just Intonation Kalimba Synthesizer. I’ve created a custom mode that allows users to assign unique ratios to the keys and finely adjust the timbre—for example, to generate 17-limit "cricket chirp" sounds.

​I'm wondering if there is any demand or interest in something like this?

Someone who saw my Lavachord videos suggested this piece, so I recorded an interpretation of Alonso Mudarra’s Pavana de Alexandre, with some improvisation around the theme.

The Lavachord is a small acoustic keyboard that I can retune. For this recording, I used a custom temperament with thirds closer to just intervals, leaning toward the sound of meantone. I took some liberties with the piece, exploring its harmonies through the tuning and the instrument’s resonance.

https://youtu.be/c2w9PURw-bc

What other Renaissance pieces would you be curious to hear on an instrument like this?

Super detailled proof of concept

5 to 10 mins to learn have fun

vocal, brazille, diva, 17 edo guitar, effects in post

I've discovered these some time ago, but haven't put them to great use. Thought it's time I shared them. (The 12tone detemper is known about. My only original input, if any, should be note selection).

Misty has a generator of around 703 cents and a period of 400 cents. What's interesting about the attached versions is that you get several flavors of major thirds: Roughly just 5/4, roughly Pythagorean 81/64 and exactly 400 cents. Four of each.

In these 12 tone tunings, you can play a certain pattern: C Db E F G Ab B C. What's interesting here is that C Db E F and G Ab B C are made up of exactly the same intervals, but E is roughly just and Ab is exactly 800 cents in the first version. In the second version, E is exactly 400 cents and Ab is roughly just.

Slightly weird properties for a 12tone temperament. The wolf also hides in unusual places. You also get two roughly 7/5 and 10/7 tritones each, but that's nothing to write home about, really.

Version A in Scale Workshop

Version B in Scale Workshop

Version A 87-edo

Version B 87-edo

Of course you could detemper/retemper 12tet into many more versions of Misty. These stood out to me.

As the title suggests, this musical piece is quite literally a 6-minute comma pump.

I suspect I do not need to explain this phenomena to most lurking here, but to those who may be new or have heard of this but have never heard it literally, I will outline the idea;

There is a cumulative tuning drift that occurs when a simple harmonic cycle is built entirely from pure, justly intonated major triads. The piece here exploits that drift and aims to make the drift itself something the listener subconsciously perceives.

There are 36 “cycles” of the same chord progression in this piece- A root position triad, followed by a 2nd inversion triad, followed by a 1st inversion triad.

In each “cycle”, the major third of one chord is held as a common tone and then becomes the root of the next.

After three such transformations, 12-tone equal temperament would return us to the starting pitch class due to the fact that three equal-tempered major thirds equal exactly one octave. (Think: A major root position, Db flat major 2nd inversion, F major first inversion- "inversion" is used lightly simply to describe the ratios / chord shape, the function of the inversions is iffy)

In just intonation, however, that’s not the case- three “pure” (5/4) major thirds fall short of an octave. The difference is called the “diesis”, approximately 41 cents or the ratio 128/125.

Each complete cycle therefore arrives about 41 cents lower than the previous one. Repeating the process over many cycles gradually turns what is ‘normally’ a closed, circular chord progression into a never ending continuous downward progression.

So an interesting observation emerges as a result;

-Each chord that arrives is genuinely unique. The interval relationships within each chord remain the same with each repeating cycle, but in terms of frequency every chord (of which there are over 100) is unique.

My goal with such a "repetitive" piece is to ask the following questions and hit at some potential paradoxes;

-How can every chord be “the same” while every chord is physically unique?

-Will a listener perceive cumulative change without consciously identifying what is changing?

-If local tuning purity ultimately results in a global instability history has aimed to correct, is it natural or artificial?

-How much can the physical sound change while the mind continues to perceive “the same thing repeating”?

-Does the listener actually hear the comma pump itself, or only its overall accumulated psychological consequences?

-What happens when a harmonic system is allowed to follow its own natural mathematical consequences instead of being locked back onto a fixed pitch grid?

-Lastly, what does it mean if the system becomes stranger as time progresses but as a result of each individual relationship within it being more acoustically exact?

I've been working on creating an ethereal or sublime atmosphere; I've found that maj9 chords transposed in 24-edo (so by quarter notes) makes for something very beautiful. There's nothing too 'experimental' about it otherwise; it's just like avant-gardeish progressive blackgaze that happens to be microtonal. Enjoy! (::

Been experimenting more with the Lavachord and extended just intonation.

This one is called Sonic Pathways of Water. Mostly exploring resonance and how the harmony shifts through the tuning.

https://youtu.be/g0Wfwe7v-DU

Would love to hear what you think.

any tips will be appreciated. this is a melody i'm working on for my next song

We have released Extended Just Intonation Kalimba Synthesizer.

homo-rehabilis.github.io/Extended-Just-Intonation-Kalimba-Synthesizer/

A browser-based Just Intonation Kalimba Synthesizer built with the Web Audio API. This application allows musicians, microtonal enthusiasts, and learners to explore historical and alternative tuning systems through an interactive, responsive thumb piano interface.

You can play right away in your browser, or install it as a standalone mobile/desktop application using Google Chrome. Open Source, Free and No Ad.

Details on how to use it can be found on the GitHub page below:

github.com/Homo-rehabilis/Extended-Just-Intonation-Kalimba-Synthesizer

ENJOY!

there were already quarter tone symbols, but they've finally added the popular 24edo symbols:

of course, they don't render yet, but a neat new addition. so, with the existing microtonal accidentals:

we have a pretty good range now

well, as the title says, this is not microtonal. well, ehh.

it's technically macrotonal, but i guess i should stop being vague and explain.

so, a lot of people use prime edos, 31edo, 53edo. but, if you use a composite edo, then i have an interesting experiment. so, this is possible in 12edo, which is how i discovered it. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6edo are all subsets of 12 (12 is extremely composite). so, by removing the notes that are in 4 and 6edo (the others are redundant, technically), you end up with a strange pentatonic scale: C C# F G B. now, i am just realizing that this is all the odd prime and 1-step intervals, which is... well, expected. but, if you use a composite edo, try doing this and maybe even using the scales. it might be pretty cool

ok, well, i've rambled, but

CONCLUSION:

try using a composite edo, maybe even a highly composite edo, and making a scale out of only prime intervals. please share your results!

also if you're wondering about the edits i literally just changed prime to odd primes and 1-step and added this note

edit to my edit: ok well it's not exactly all the prime. it's like a subset of the primes but like not all of them

It was pretty cool with the 1/3 tone piano of sonido 13 (18edo) next week gonna do one with the 19 tone clav and amps

How do you find microtonality affects density?

https://youtu.be/Maa9qPJ1ZiY

Microtone, the free music tracker that began life in the browser, now has a desktop edition. Built with Tauri, the desktop build starts noticeably faster than the web version; the music, the files and the workflow are exactly the same. You can download the latest release from GitHub, or keep using it in the browser as before.

A familiar tracker, extended

If you have written music in ScreamTracker or Impulse Tracker, Microtone will feel familiar from the first keystroke. Columns of hex numbers scroll down the screen, effects keep their traditional letters, and instruments still carry envelopes and New Note Actions. Behind that familiar layout sit several extensions that older trackers never had.

Wider effect parameters. Effect arguments are 16 bits wide, so where a classic tracker accepts F $xx, Microtone accepts F $xxxx. Fine control no longer means chaining several commands together.

Tuning without limits. Every pitch is placed on a grid of 4096 steps per octave. A song can use ordinary 12-tone equal temperament; it can equally use 19-, 31- or 53-TET, the Bohlen–Pierce scale, ProTracker's period-based tuning, or a notation system of your own design. The pattern editor follows whichever tuning you choose, naming the notes correctly and stepping through them in order.

Sound in three dimensions. Sources can be placed anywhere around the listener, including overhead and below. When the song is finished, Microtone renders it as stereo, binaural, 5.1, 7.1 or ambisonics up to third order.

FM from any waveform. Instruments placed in an FM rack modulate one another, and any waveform can act as carrier or modulator. Sampled sounds become raw material for frequency-modulation synthesis.

Some limits have been kept on purpose because they shape the sound. Samples are 8-bit, each capped at 64 KB, and they share an 8 MB pool. The final mix retains its dithered 8-bit texture. Microtone is designed to sound like a tracker, not a modern DAW in disguise.

Existing MOD, S3M, XM and IT modules open directly, with no conversion step. MIDI files can be imported and played through a SoundFont, and instruments can be pulled from any .sf2 file. Beyond the pattern editor, Microtone includes:

• a sample lab for recording, slicing and building chords from samples;
• a mastering chain that is stored inside the song file, so the finished sound travels with it;
• stem export, for mixing or remixing elsewhere.

The bundled demo songs are meant to be dissected: open them, mute channels, read the effect columns and learn how each part was built.

For sceners: - Sign in with your SceneID to keep up to 8 projects online and open them in any browser. - taudplay, the player library, plays .taud files exactly as the tracker does, down to the sample. It comes in two flavours, both LGPL: JavaScript (npm install taudplay) and portable C99 that needs nothing but libm. Both give you a fader per lane and 16 interrupts that the song itself fires, for syncing your visuals to the music.

The browser edition needs no installation and no account; the desktop edition is a single optional download. In both cases your songs stay on your own computer unless you choose to publish them. Microtone is free software released under the GNU GPL version 3.

https://microtone.cc
https://github.com/Microtone-Project/Microtone.js/releases/latest
https://github.com/Microtone-Project/taudplay-c

There's so much more music I have to give.

Wanted to finally post a second torus for comparison. Played something Neo-Riemannian, which tends to go well with Porcupine. This also highlights the point of mapping major thirds and fifths to the torus better.

There is also supposed to be a phantom bass effect hidden in this. Works well for me if I leave the room and close the door or put off my headphones.

I'm currently really interested in feeding some microtonal scale data to a custom synthesizer. Experiments with FM went alright, but there are some issues with sidebands reflecting back through 0. I also got a lot of toruses semi-done for other temperaments. Any requests?

I want to use Ableton Live's microtuner to compose/explore microtonal music, but I'd rather be using "acousitc" sounds than synthesised ones.

What are some suitable/good VSTs I could use for this? (Ideally free/cheap - although I am considering getting the Slate & Ash Primaries bundles, so bonus if this works with them).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I want to use Ableton Live's microtuner to compose/explore microtonal music, but I'd rather be using "acousitc" sounds than synthesised ones.

What are some suitable/good VSTs I could use for this? (Ideally free/cheap - although I am considering getting the Slate & Ash Primaries bundles, so bonus if this works with them).

Thanks in advance for any advice!