Robert Inventor

Version 4.5 is now in beta

For details, see Tune Smithy for Mac Beta (also has link to the Windows installer).

Early stage beta at present.

Version 4.x is the next version, but not sure when.

NOTE currently I'm working on improvements in the user interface. This should make the program very much more user friendly and I plan to divide it up into separate stand alone programs - in addition to the one large program. However, it is a major overhaul which involves a lot of work and bug testing.

The first new stand alone program is the new Bounce Metronome Pro - stand alone version of the rhythm player. To get an idea of the sorts of improvements I have in store for FTS 4.x take a look at Bounce Metronome Pro.

Some time I plan to update the large parent program Tune Smithy with these new more user friendly improvements.

I plan to do it in several stages - I may release separate stand-alone versions of some of the other tasks in Tune Smithy.

Because of the level of interest in Bounce Metronome Pro, much higher than expected, I have continued to work on that so have postponed the work on Tune Smithy to handle it. However, many of the improvements in Bounce Metronome Pro will make a difference to Tune Smithy 4.x as well when it is ready.

The first separate stand-alone for Tune Smithy 4.x is the Lambdoma Music Therapy task which is available already for the keyboard. I will soon put up another version on the web for other users.

Then the other separate stand alone programs should follow after that every few months or so, if all goes according to plan. After the final release of FTS 4.x, I should then be able to keep Tune Smithy in sync with the stand alone programs.

Minor Updates

October 12th 2011 - September 24th 2011 - September 14th 2011 - June 14th 2011-August 27th 2010 -June 1st, 2010 - May 19th, 2010 - April 15th, 2010 - December 22nd- December 13th - December 9th - November 17th - November 14th - November 10th - November 1st - October 30th - October 28th - October 19th -October 17th -October 14th - October 13th - October 7th - September 26th - September 23rd - September 20th - September 8th - August 19th - August 4th - July 26th - July 22nd - July 16th - July 1st - June 24th - April 16th - Feb 17th -Feb 8th - Feb 4th (all 2008).

Minor update - 12th October 2011

This is just a bug fix upload, fixes a few bugs which are minor or rarely encountered - most current users don't need to update to it.

FTS October 12th 2011

Minor update - 24th September 2011

New example tune harmonic fibonacci fractal tune in the Fibonacci Rhythms folder. Here is an mp3 clip of it: harmonic fibonacci fractal tune.

I've done a blog post about it here: Fibonacci Rhythm - no bar pattern, highly structured but never repeats - played on harmonics

FTS September 24th 2011

Minor update -14th September 2011

Minor update, fixes bug to do with unlock process - if you have unlocked it successfully already no need to do this update.

FTS September 14th 2011

Minor update -14th June 2011

New option in Midi Out Resets (Ctrl + 80) - Send all instruments in advance. This is helpful if used with a sampler or synth that takes a while to load the instrument. Especially useful if you set a unique instrument for each output channel using Midi Output Channels for Parts and Polyphony (Ctrl + 60)

Improvements in layout of main window for the Music Keyboard Retuning and Composition Retuning tasks, also in the Options window.

See Time Signature Metronome with the innovative Gravity bounce

FTS June 14th 2011

Minor update -August 27th 2010

Fixes a bug - if you make fractal tunes using an arpeggio that ascends and descends in different ways like melodic minor then plays just a repeated note - see bug fixes

FTS August 27th 2010

Minor update -June 1st 2010

Just adds a bit of extra code to help with bug tracing - bug fixes

FTS June 1st 2010

Minor update - May 19th, 2010

Minor bug fixes update.

FTS May 19th 2010

Minor update - May 15th, 2010

Minor bug fixes update.

Sorry, not yet been able to start on the major update of FTS 3.0 to FTS 3.2 - still working on Bounce Metronome Pro then will be doing an update of the Lambdoma Music Therapy task as a stand alone program before I get to FTS 3.2.

FTS May 15th 2010

see bug fixes

(also did update FTS April 14th 2010 but after upload found it had the date in Help | About set to Dec 2008 so I did a new version with the correct date shown there - otherwise both are identical).

Minor update - December 22nd 2008

Added the tempo dial lets you change tempo with a click on the pointer - also shows tempo names such as Largo, Allegro etc.

Improvements in the welcome message for the tool tip extra help. Perhaps it wasn't clear before how that window worked and how useful it is as the main help for how to use individual windows and controls for Tune Smithy.

Many minor improvements in the layout for the Rhythm player which hopefully will make it much more user friendly. Added shadows to the bouncing balls - this for some reason helps a lot with exact synchronisation of ones playing to the bounces of the balls. Many other improvements to the bouncing balls and time signature windows.

Minor update - December 13th 2008

Improves layout of the colours dialog and the time signature metronome task.

Reworked some of the example scripts.

Fixes some minor bugs in the time signature metronome and gravity bounce. Changed dark red to steel blue for one of the metronome preset colours (dark red looked too much like red).

Minor update - December 9th 2008

This is the first update with the new Gravity Bounce, the time signature window for the metronome, and the new types of rhythm, particularly irrational meters and truly irrational meters like PI / 4.

also the blog.

Minor update - November 17th 2008

More tool tip help for the keyboard retuning Presets for the Music Keyboard Retuning task or in In | Midi In Options (Ctrl + 25) | Presets.

Fixed some bugs in the keyboard retuning Presets.

Minor update - November 14th 2008

Tool tips for Edit Wave Shape Player Menu (Ctrl + 189) and Wave Shape Player Instruments menu (Ctrl + 196) explaining how to make a new Wave Shape instrument and add it to the menu.

New tool tip for Edit radio for the New Seed, Scale or Arpeggio windows - explains how to edit from the midi keyboard.

Improved layout for the Synaptics Touch Pad Options (Ctrl + 211) window.

Minor update - November 10th 2008

Very minor improvements in interface for fractal tunes and chord player

Bug fixes for fractal tunes and chord progression player.

Minor update - November 1st 2008

Added a few new tool tips for the Choose parts by drop menu and Choose Parts by Other window.

Minor update - October 30th 2008

Added new smaller version of the main window for the chord progression player task. Small improvements in layout of chord progression main window.

Choose parts by other
Chord Progressions
Fibonacci Rhythm
Fibonacci Tone Scapes
Multiple seeds
Other tunes
Polyrhythms
Sloth canons
transforming seed
Six eight and other rhythms

Minor update - October 28th 2008

In All Tune Smithy Windows (Ctrl + 208) added Show changes drop menu. You can use this to show with an asterisk all the windows that are changed away from the preset values. This is the same option that's been available for a long time in the Organise Windows drop list of windows.

In Randomise Tune & Transformations (Ctrl + 144) - added option to fade out before next tune, preset to selected. Also show which were randomised for each tune with *s, and added option: Show what was randomised in Tune Info.

Also put the tempi and note ranges options from that window into a separate new window. Also when the tune randomiser is switched on -adds "Randomised play" to the main window title bar.

Also added Tune Parameters check box, preset to selected - by unselecting it you can quickly set up FTS to randomise just the tune while keeping the parameters just the same. This gives a way to leave FTS running so that it just plays any tune in the drop list and changes at random every so many minutes.

Added Out | Pitch Capabilities Wizard. This helps deal with synths that treat pitch bends as acting for all notes in play (i.e. don't distinguish channels for pitch bends).

Improved layout of the More Pitch bend options - for rarer occasions (Ctrl + 164) and added more warnings for the Pitch bends change new notes only option. Also made the warning when this option is selected more obvious in the Notes in Play | More (Ctrl + 47) window.

In the Make web page of tune midi or audio clips (Ctrl + 49) - when the Link to wav (or mp3 or whatever) option is selected, have a new option "Links for all times" which adds links for audio recordings for all the times in the gallery - you can see this in use in the new web pages on this web site here:

Minor update - October 19th 2008

Minor improvement in layout of the main menu.

New smaller version of the main window menu - choose more to get back to the original, then More a second timeto get to the original expanded menu.

Minor update - October 17th 2008

New option Skip notes less than [] secs in the Tempo and volume for fractal tune window. This is useful for tunes with fractal

rhythms that have patches of very fast notes, e.g. the Curlew fractal tune.

New option Link to wav (or mp3, or whatever you select in the Record to file window) in the Make web page of tune midi or audio clips (Ctrl + 49). It could be useful if one wants to make the audio clips separately (e.g. using a soft synth that can render a midi clip directly to waveform audio).

Made slower versions of the arabic_17_tone_maqam_Iraq and arabic_17_tone_maqam_ussaq tunes in the Sloth Canons folder. Changed tuning of the amble tune to use a 7/4 instead of 15/8 (sounded better) as amble_thirteen_limit_harmonic_fragment and left out the old amble and amble_was fractal tune.

Minor update - October 14th 2008

New To Tune button for the metronome and polyrhythm player task - converts the rhythm into a randomised fractal tune playing the same rhythm.

Added options Position percussion notes by part and Pos. all by part to the Tune Options window (Ctrl + ). This makes it easy to pick out the different rhythms in the metronome when they are playing non melodic percussion, or all at the same pitch.

Added a couple of example polyrhythm tunes: Polyrhythmic Syncopated Greensleeves and Polyrhythmic Greensleeves to the Polyrhythms example tunes for the player - idea is to give an idea of the sort of thing you can get if you convert a rhythm into a fractal tune then add a chord progression and tweak the result a bit.

Minor update - October 13th 2008

Improvements in metronome and polyrhythms task and scripting.

Added Find Beats from Recording (Ctrl + 72) to the Set Beat Volumes window (Ctrl + 31) and improved layout of the window. Also added a Reset Beats window. Added more tool tips help.

Similarly improved the Seeds for Layers (Ctrl + 31) window for the fractal tune tasks (same window).

Minor improvement in some of the messages to user.

Some bug fixes.

Minor update - October 7th 2008

Added window - Keep settings for task change (Ctrl + 215)

New option in Custom 2 or 3 beat fractal rhythm (Ctrl + 34) - lets one initialise with e.g. S or M instead of L.

Minor improvement in layout for Custom 2 or 3 beat fractal rhythm (Ctrl + 34).

New tool tips & improvements in the tool tips for the Fibonacci rhythm windows.

Messages for soundcard wizard improved.

Add new sloth canon 3, 4 and 5 beat fractal tune examples + fibonacci rhythm exs - these are intended to show up the fractal nature of the tunes as much as possible. Play them faster, e.g. 4 times faster for the 4 beat fractal tune, and the tune will sound the same (or similar in the case of the fibonacci tonescapes - for those the rhythm sounds exactly the same when speeded up about 1.6 times, but the tune just sounds similar in character, not exactly the same).

Notes Currently Playing (Ctrl + 47) - indicates with # or @ or ~ if any notes need to be switched off because there are # too many simultaneous pitch bends for available channels with suitable controllers or @ because of same note polyphony (exactly the same midi note played several times simultaneously) or ~ one of the parts has changed to a midi legato monomode part - so all the notes for that part currently sounding in the other channels need to be switched off. Shows running total of all notes switched off so far for each channel for currently selected part, and for all the channels for each part.

New version of science_friction.ts for the help, with synth pad sweep for the instrument and without the tempo map.

When you open a fractal tune via File | Open As, shows the folder for the new tune in the drop list of folders.

In Ratios Options (Ctrl + 56) - added new option "or if exactly given" - idea there is if the user has entered the ratios exactly as ratios then they probably want to continue to show them as ratios. If entered as a very close cents value or by backwards compatibility with earlier versions of FTS that didn't have a separate ratios type - then continue to show them as ratios if they can be expressed as such using a low enough max prime factor.

It's preset to selected. If you want to go back to the earlier version and show them as cents, then just unselect this box. Example in harmonic series, with this selected a ratio like 53/1 will show as an exact ratio, with it unselected, it will show up as a cents value even if you entered it as a ratio.

Added cello tune fibonacci with two to one beat ratios to fibonacci tune exs. - this is an example of using the fibonacci rhythm but without the irrational beat ratios of some of the other examples.

Some other very minor updates.

Some bug fixes.

Minor update - September 26th 2008

Added the randomise button to the smallest version of the Fractal player task. Some more tips including tip for fractal player main window.

When you start up a task for the first time, now shows the main window to left, and the tasks and tip of the day windows below each other to the right of it (if there is enough space on the screen) - instead of all the windows overlapping as they were before.

Some bug fixes.

Minor update - September 23rd 2008

More tool tip help for some of the windows, particularly to do with searching and sorting scales and making the lists of SCALA Scales and SCALA modes.

Associated Bug fixes

Minor update - September 20th 2008

Mainly bug fixes. Also improvements in the Tasks folder integration. Also more tool tip help for some of the windows, particularly to do with scale construction.

Minor update - September 8th 2008

Tasks folder is now integrated into FTS, available from Tasks | Tasks for Tune Smithy and with a check box to show the window when FTS starts up. Makes it much easier to choose tasks and to change task.

In As menu for Lambdoma Task - renamed the entries - hopefully is clearer now what they do.

The example fractal tunes for the fractal player / composer are now categorized in a more user friendly way as:

Choose parts by other and hocketting
Chord Progressions
Fibonacci Rhythm
Fibonacci Tone Scapes
Multiple seeds
Other tunes
Polyrhythms
Sloth canons
transforming seed
using polyrhythm feature to play six eight and_other_rhythms

instead of the old classification by the tune smithy version number used to make the tunes.

Added some more tool tips. When you hover the mouse over a window title bar, or part of the window with no controls, then the tip for the window itself appears below the window (if it has one, they don't all have tips yet). E.g. when you hover the mouse over the Parts window, then a tip about what the window does appears below it and if you show the help for tool tip window (shift + F1) you can read an introduction to how to use the window.

Minor update - Aug 19th 2008

Improved layout of the Unlock window. Improved Help menu entry about FAQ to make it clearer that the on-line wiki FAQ is now the most recent version.

Minor update - Aug 4th 2008

In Out Device Capabilities window (Ctrl + 106) renamed the GM Synth button to GM Synth most compatible, and message you get when you click on the button explains, also best for midi files as compatible as possible for all users.

Minor update - July 26th 2008

Minor improvements in window layout for Player task.

Improvements in how the Seed window works which should make it much easier to play a seed using the PC keyboard.

Added some more tool tips.

Some bug fixes mainly affecting the Seed window - see the Bug fixes page

Minor update - July 22nd 2008

Improvements in layout of the Player window you see when you first install Tune Smithy - set out like the tutorial in the wiki. So it goes: "First choose a TUNE" ... "Now choose a SEED, and play it ",... "Hear how the WHOLE FRACTAL TUNE CHANGES when you change the seed" ... and so on. Hopefully this will make it easier for users who download the program to get started right away with the fractal tunes. Also added a button to bring up the wiki tutorial.

More work on the tool tips for FTS, and the wiki. Both very much work in progress - the tips may get more or less finished in a week or two with luck, the help for the program will probably take longer. If you want to help, see the How can I help section in the wiki.

First tip of the day now alerts the user to the tasks folder: "This is just one way you can use the program. To get an idea of the many things you can accomplish with Tune Smithy, please look in the Tasks for Tune Smithy folder on your desktop. The icons in that folder start the program with the interface appropriate for the particular task..."

For Lambdoma tasks, improved presentation of the In As menu. Added In As | More | Each row of the Lambdoma plays a separate part.

Other minor improvements in layout and presentation.

Some bug fixes - see the Bug fixes page

Minor update - July 16th 2008

MAJOR BUG FIX if you use the tsProj files and start them by file association. See the Bug fixes page

Improvements in layout of In As menu for Lambdoma. More tool tips. Added new wiki which will eventually develop into the new updated help for the program - link to it in the Help menu. Also link to new forum. These will also soon be added to this web site.

It will take me many months to update the help for the entire program - the first phase is to port the old help to the new one. But since it is done as a wiki, you may be able to speed up the process if you want to take part. It is early days yet, so not quite ready for adding lots of new pages - but there are many things you can do to help if you want to help with the wiki. There's also some new material which is appropriate to add right now - particularly tutorials explaining how to do particular things with FTS.

If you want to help, see the How can I help section in the wiki.

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

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.

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

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

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

Minor update - February 4th 2008

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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).

Bug fixes

see the Bug fixes page

Version 3.0 release