Microtonal features for composers - IntroOverview - Connecting your music notation software - Setting up the tuning - What kinds of compositions? - Microtuning large orchestras? - Next OverviewYou can use Tune Smithy as a tool with your music notation software to compose microtonally directly in any tuning. See the Retuned Midi Compositions page for examples of what you can do. The method works by using the pitch bend capabilities of your synth or soundcard. So is very wide in its applicability. You compose in your music notation software just as you do normally - here I am using NoteWorthy Composer - you can do exactly the same in Sibelius, Finale, Harmony Assistant, or whatever: There the comment on the score is just a reminder of how to retune the score when it is played. Connecting your music notation software to Tune SmithyYou need to install a virtual midi cable such as Midi Yoke NT to connect your music notation software to Tune Smithy. Then in your music notation software, you choose it as the device to use for playback: Here I've chosen Midi Yoke 2 (the second of the Midi Yoke virtual cable devices) Now in Tune Smithy choose the same device for input:
Then choose the device you want to use for playback in Tune Smithy. Then run the Out Device Capabilities wizard to make sure that it is used optimally. There are special considerations for some devices, e.g. for ZASF, or for GPO etc so you may also need to do some configuring of Tune Smithy to work with those. Setting up the tuning to play in Tune SmithyYou then need to enter the desired scale, and do any other configuring you need to do in Tune Smithy to tune your score as desired. With Tune Smithy, you can tune any note of the score to any desired pitch. So the pitches your score plays don't need to match the usual expected pitches. E.g. an E on the score needn't play a pitch anywhere near to E - it can be whatever you like. This is particularly useful when the scale you want to play doesn't fit easily into the framework of twelve tone music. Here I've chosen one of the scales by Dan Stearn: You can now choose whether to play the scale from successive white notes (so - assuming you have it set so that the 1/1 is played using the C on your score, then the 8/7 is D, 7/5 is E etc), or from all the notes of the keyboard (1/1 is C, 8/7 is C#, 7/5 is D etc), or choose amongst various other options or make your own mapping. That's it done . If you have tried this sort of thing by hand you may expect that you need to work out what pitch bends to apply or which channels the notes should be played on - but Tune Smithy does all that for you automatically. It will play the same instruments, with the same stereo pan locations, same controllers etc as you would have in normal twelve equal music. Once it is all set up, you can then forget about Tune Smithy, just go back to the music notation software and work with it as you would normally. Since the notes are retuned in Tune Smithy then when you click the play button on the score then you will hear the notes retuned to the desired tuning as you compose. You just need to remember to start up Tune Smithy again each time you start up the music notation software, and make sure you have the correct scale and other settings for whichever composition you wish to work on. You may want to save all your Tune Smithy settings for each piece as a project with the same name. Then whenever you go back to that piece in your music notation software, open the same named project in FTS. There are many other options and features - this is just an example of one of the simplest ways to use it. What kinds of compositions can I use this method for?Just about any kind of composition - you aren't limited to solo music for instance. It can be used for compositions with several polyphonic instruments playing at once, all at different stereo pan locations, with different effects for each instrument, and so on. This all happens in an automatic fashion - you don't need to do anything special. You just need to run the Out Device Capabilities wizard to make sure your device is being used optimally. Tune Smithy will then automatically do all the channel remapping and send all the necessary midi messages to all the output channels to make it work as expected. To see the sort of thing you can do in this way, visit the Retuned Midi Compositions page. You will find examples of equal tempered scales, just intonation scales of various flavours, non octave tunings, and tonic shifts. The original unretuned clips and the scores (in NoteWorthy Composer format) are included with the program. Here for instance is my seven equal trio for violin, cello and glockenspiel (midi clips and mp3s): mvt 1 <mp3>, mvt 2 <mp3>, mvt 3 <mp3>, mvt 4 <mp3>. (Tuned with seven equally spaced notes per octave instead of the usual twelve). Here is the 17-et hurdy gurdy player <mp3> (seventeen notes to an octave), and for a non octave repeating example, 2001 a MOS odyssey <mp3> - then for an example of tonic shifting, the adaptive puzzle <mp3>. They are all done in the same way - composing in music notation software (NWC) retuned in real time in FTS - then I did the final version of the midi clip by retuning the original midi directly file to file using the retuning midi player (for the most precise timings of the notes). As a special feature, Tune Smithy also has a realisation of Gene Ward Smith's just intonation tune transfromations - here is an example (thirty minutes with all the transformations of the original tune): hexany phrase transformations <mp3>. For more about these examples, and other examples (not included with the program) to give an idea of the range of possibilities for small chamber works, see my tunes blog (opens in new window) . You can find various realisations of some of them on my artist pages at mp3.com.au (new win). What about microtonal scores for large orchestras?If you work with a single midi out device, you will soon hit the limitations in this method due to the sixteen channel limitation of midi, if you need to retune e.g. large orchestral works without the use of tuning tables. However, these can be overcome if you are able to use more than one midi output device, e.g. using Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO) - in which case you would want to explore the option Enable assignment of Out devices for In device. This will let you play the sounds of an entire microtonal orchestra in real time from the orchestral score in your music notation software, by spreading the instruments over as many out devices as are required to realise the score. Or alternatively, you can build up an audio larger ensemble by layering audio recordings of separate sections of the orchestra. Rick McGowan has a demo up of the use of Tune Smithy to retune an orchestral score using GPO with Tune Smithy using the option "Enable assignment of Out devices for In device". For the audio clips, including a piece of his own in fifteen equal, See the end of his Microtuning the orchestra. What to do nextFreeware / Shareware status: This feature is shareware. It requires the Midi Relay unlock key. You can also continue to use it after the test drive is over, with pauses every few minutes of playing time. To continue reading about use of Tune Smithy as a composition tool, go on to the Special Features . To find this feature after you download Tune Smithy: To download the program and take it for a Test drive (start the test drive at any time):
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