Alternate tunings? Microtonality?

[czempel]

Hi-

This is my first post. I am exploring Arabic music, which uses "quarter tones," i.e. notes that fall between the semitones we are accustomed to in Western music. Is there some way of producing these tones on the Mac?

I'm using OSX 10.2.8 and Metro SE. I've got an Edirol PCR-A30 controller (just a controller - no sound output) and I'm using the built-in Quicktime synth for sound.

Apparently, there's something called the "MIDI Tuning Standard" or MTS. Does Quicktime synth respond to MTS? Anyone know how this works?

I've come across a couple of utilities for Mac - LMSO (L'il Miss Scale Oven) and Max Magic Tuner. Both of these are commercial software ($165 and $69, respectively). The latter has gotten some pretty bad reviews - slow, un-Mac-like, etc.

I'd prefer finding some lower-priced shareware or freeware. I'm not trying to produce authentic sounding music (ie, nays, ouds, mizmars, etc.) or performance quality sound files for distribution. I'm just looking for a way to hear these scales as I play on my keyboard, so I can train my ear to get used to the various sounds of these intervals.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Chip

[Scoot]

There is probably a better way than this but you could run quicktime through the DLSMusicDevice plugin and then run it again on another track with a different tuning on it.....if SE will allow it.

Normal notes would be written on the first track and then these different tuned notes would be on the other. It's a bit long winded but it would work.

Does it help?
Actually reading your message again....it doesn't.
My method is only good once you know what they're supposed to sound like.
Sounds like an interesting quest.

[Jerm]

Alot of old hardware synths and modules support odd tunings and they can be had very cheap these days. I would suggest going that route.

[Gerald angus]

Yes, my old Yamaha DX 11 supports what it calls Micro tunings.
I have never explored the use of it but, from manual: there are 11 microtonal preset scales and 2 user-programable, one of which can be selected for use in a "performance mode," In a some what tedious( perhaps) session you can create a global scale of your choice that all voices/instruments will adhear to. And, each defined octave can be edited to any notes in a resolution of 1200 divisions per octave. For a quarter tone scale I guess you would have to define a 4 octave range to get all the notes you would need. Never heard of any arabian keyboards for this application but for transcribing sitar music perhaps this could be useful. Good Luck.
No, my DX 11 is not for sale.

[czempel]

I found a way to do this - one that didn't cost me any money...

I'm using two freeware apps - MidiPipe and SimpleSynth. I set up MidiPipe so that it takes input from my external keyboard, then it goes into a MicroTuner module in MidiPipe, and then the output goes to SimpleSynth. This works fine for my purposes, which amount to nothing more at this point than noodling around in these various scales to get used to the sound.

The MicroTuner uses channels 1-9 and 11-13 (skipping 10 which is often reserved for drum tracks), one track for each note of the chromatic scale. When you set your tuning adjustment for each note of the scale, it sends out an appropriate pitch bend message on that note's channel. Then it takes your MIDI input and re-routes each of the 12 notes of the scale to that note's MIDI channel. Primitive, but as I said, for my purposes it works just fine. SimpleSynth even lets me choose a soundfont - I stumbled across saz.SF2, which sounds a bit like a saz or baglama, a long-necked, wire-strung member of the lute family. (My brother actually owns a saz!)

Here are some URLs if anyone is interested:

MidiPipe: http://homepage.mac.com/nicowald/SubtleSoft/
SimpleSynth: http://pete.yandell.com/software/
saz.SF2: http://www.hammersound.net/cgi-bin/soundlink.pl?action=view_category&category=Ethnic&ListStart=0&ListLength=15

Thanks to all the kind folk who replied!

Chip