What's new? - Tune Smithy - Windows Software

To see if you need to update, compare the date under Help | About with the date at the top of this page. With the latest version you can automatically check for updates. To update, Download Tune Smithy and run the installer.

Do you wish to have your attention drawn to major updates to Tune Smithy? If so, send an e-mail to support@robertinventor.com to say you want to be on the Tune Smithy announcement list.

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Minor Updates

July 1st 2008 - June 24th 2008 - April 16th 2008 - Feb 17th 2008 -Feb 8th 2008 - Feb 4th 2008

Minor update - July 1st 2008

New option - if you right click on any window and choose Show ALL TOOL TIPS for this window from the drop menu, you can show all the tips in one go in the help window - or using Shift + select that option, show them in a separate document.

In the Midi Out / Save Timing window (Ctrl + 58) if you have played some notes via midi before you use the Show Timing button - then at the end of the message you get a list of the number of midi events sent of the various types, and how much time was spent sending each message- the time taken just to send the message itself. This can help determine if any particular midi messages (e.g. pan position for instance) take a significant time in milliseconds on your system.

Improved layout for several windows, particularly the ones to do with the pitch bend options, and the ones to do with the Wave Shape player, (Ctrl + 196 etc). Aso small improvements in the layout for the chord player and Rhythms and polyrhythms tasks. Also improvements in the layout for the Tune As Score Options window (Ctrl + 19).

Bug fixes - see the Bug fixes page

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Minor update - June 24th 2008

Reorganised the main menu to help with navigation. Some of the titles shown in CAPS - this seems to help one to find ones position in a large menu.

Some minor bug fixes.

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Minor update - April 16th 2008

Added: options to make an XML Shareable Play List (XSPF) or m3u play list whenever you make the fractal tunes or retuned midi files web page gallery. See File | Midi File Save Options | Make Web Page | Play lists (midi player or fractal tunes task).

Bug fixes - see the Bug fixes page

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Minor update - February 17th 2008

New option Opts | Space out controls in windows. Lets you space them out if you have lots of screen space, or you can go back to the way they were originally to crowd them together if you have less space or want to fit as many windows as possible into the display.

If you have a synaptics touch pad or touch screen then you will find new options to let you vary the mouse scroll wheel controllers for the theremin and the pc keyboard by touch pressure - this gives an "aftertouch" effect. You can also make the volumes touch sensitive too. See Synaptics Touch Pad Options (Ctrl + 211), which you can also get to from the Theremin opts or the What to Show window for the pc keyboard.

Slightly Improved layout for the Mouse and PC keyboard task and improved a couple of messages that Tune Smithy shows for it.

Bug fixes. Most fairly minor. Main one - you may find that Mouse & PC Keyboard music icon in the task window starts up the Player task instead of the intended one. If that happened to you, then to set it back the way it should be when installed, go to Tasks | More, change to the correct task, and use File | Reset Everything.

see the Bug fixes page

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Minor update - February 8th 2008

This is all for the Metronome and polyrhythms task

Added option to vary the beat volumes individually, e.g. to make syncopated rhythms. See Beat volumes... in the main window.

Added option to auto set the midi save name to match the polyrhythm (Record to File window (Ctrl + 11))

Added buttons to the Parts window to set up the parts to play a Harmonic series based, or sub harmonic series based metronome - where each part plays a harmonic matching the number of beats in the rhythm, e.g. in a 5 3 1 polyrhythm, the three rhythms would play 5/1, 3/1 and 1/1 (with options to reduce to octave or not, and to divide by or into the first number). Requires a melodic instrument to be selected into the parts of course.

Bug fixes. All failry minor. see the Bug fixes page

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Minor update - February 4th 2008

Summary - General - retune midi task - Wave count task - fractal tunes tasks - chord progression player - bug fixes

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Summary:

Some new minor options for the Wave Count, Retune Midi, Chord Progression player, and fractal tunes tasks. For details see the What's new page.

Bug fixes. Two general ones (including a rare access violation) and several minor bug fixes for the fractal tune task and the chord progression player task.

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General (but most relevant for the Retuning midi player)

Timing Options for Play and Midi Save (Ctrl + 58) - added Use play delays for midi saves, and Predate effects etc if possible.

These help when making midi clips to be played on Quicktime embedded in web pages if the CPU load is high - for example of use see retuned compositions with 10ms delays - may also help in other situations where you want to make a midi clip to play on a soft synth that doesn't respond immediately to instrument changes or pitch bends when the CPU load is high.

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Retuning midi player task

In the Retune Miid Player Task - Added option Make web page of tune midi or audio clips to make a gallery of all the midi files to retune. This was done to make the retuned compositions page, which shows the effect. It doesn't actually make the clips, just makes a web page for existing clips. You can use this to make a similar web page for all your retuned midi files in a folder. Just browse to the folder of midi files to retune in the main window. To retune all the midi files in one go use the Retune midi file button in the Record to File (Ctrl + 11) window - if you want to have mp3s etc as well as midi clips on the web page, well you need to record them separately yourself, or use a player that can render all the files directly to audio (such as the Roland Sound Canvas). Then when you make the web page, select the Link to audio files option and choose the appropriate audio file type in the Record to File window.

In the second More version of the Record to File (Ctrl + 11) window - added a check box - _source - to remove the _source ending of a file name such as 7_equal_mvt1_source for the retuned file name.

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Wave count task

In the Wave Count Task, you can now set the resolution for the hi res. volume and pitch glides for Transcribe to Theremin. Set this smaller to let the theremin respond more smoothly to pitch and volume changes - this will use more CPU time, especially if you have the Use rec. volume at note. If set low, then midi clips will take longer to make when you use Save As Midi. When played in real time, may not make much difference, though if your computer is fast enough to handle the standard 5 ms second easily then setting it lower may make the result smoother.

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Fractal tunes tasks

You can now open and save chord progressions from the new Chords drop menu in any of the fractal tune windows e.g. the Chord Progression for Arpeggios (Ctrl + 151).

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Chord progression player

The new Chords drop menu in the fractal tunes tasks also makes it easier to transfer your chord progressions to Fractal Tunes.

Minor change in how the chord symbols are interpreted. Before, C0 meant to make a chord consisting of just the root. Now, it means to make a chord with no notes at all in it, - this makes it easier to build up chords on the root with the root missing - e.g. variations on inverted chords with missing notes. Now C1 means a chord consisting of just the root. If you used the notation C0 before, your old chord progressions will still work as before - and you will get a check box added to let you continue to use it if you want - but new ones need the new notation. See Bug fixes page.

Updated the help for the chord progression symbols to reflect this change, and while at it, added buttons to the Notation (Ctrl + 61) window to show the Chord symbols list, and the Microtonal Notations sections of the help.

Also edited and rewrote the Chord Symbols section of the chord progression player help for clarity (with bullet points).

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Bug fixes

see the Bug fixes page

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Version 3.0 release

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January 2008 - Release of Tune Smithy 3.0

Some new features include:

Many improvements in the interface - you should find it much easier to find your way around it.
Csound support - with automatic orchestra and score construction. Just select csound instruments from a list of presets, and FTS will automatically make a CSound orchestra for your selection, with the stereo pan for the individual instruments set as desired - and record your playing to a CSound score for that orchestra - or you can play it in real time using CSoundAV. No code needs to be edited - it is all completely automatic, select the instrument for a part in the user interface, and set the stereo pan position for the part similarly. Techy users can also easily add new CSound instruments of their own to the list.
New waveform player - plays mathematically defined shapes - this is something a little out of the usual line of ways of making sound. Comes with a whole lot of preset instruments to select from a list. The motivation is that mathematically, pure harmonic timbres are equivalent to waves that repeat exactly, so this gives a way to make new harmonic timbres.. The instruments are particularly good for just intonation intervals - like the sound of someone singing very clearly in pitch. They can also be plucked. You can tweak the presets - or if you have a bit of mathematical background, try entering.any mathematical formula. It doesn't matter what you use, as the player will automatically add suitable quadratic / linear terms to make them suitable to use for sound - so it will play any arbitrary mathematical curve you like to challenge it with.
Can retune multiple midi in devices simultaneously to multiple midi outs - you can set the midi out devices individually for each in device, and configure the way all the in devices are tuned, and the instruments for each one independently. This is particularly useful for microtonal composers who wish to retune large orchestral scores.
New option to pass on key switch notes unchanged (not try to retune them). This is of particular interest to composers who want to use Giga or GPO instruments or the like that use key switch notes below the range of the instrument to change the style of playing - e.g. plucked, staccato, etc.
The fractal tune, and polyrhythm metronome are now scriptable - e.g. to speed up tempo or slow down, also volume, instruments, anything you can change in the user interface can now be scripted to happen at a particular time.
New project save type which includes all your settings in FTS.
New wizards in the Out menu to make it easier to quickly configure FTS to work optimally with different types of out devices
You can now use much larger numbers in exact ratios (techy - any ratio of two 64 bit integers) - this is of interest to scales / tuning enthusiasts, means you can use much larger numbers as exact ratios instead of decimal cents values.
Easy way to assign chords to any row of the Keyboard player
Improvements in synchronisation via midi with other synths
New pitch bend ripples option for the theremin.
New option to find consonant chords in the current scale
Options to randomise the formulae for choose parts by other, and in other places in the program
Tracks recently visited files of all types recognised by the program, with buttons to bring them up easily and quickly
Every window has a number and you can now bring it up using e.g. Ctrl + 11 (type 11 with the Ctrl key held down then release) to bring up the Record to File window.
Many other new features, including extra options and improvements in the layout for all the tasks. These are far too numerous to mention them individually here.