Topic by L3nnard

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  • L3nnard
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  • Registered: 26-09-2016
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Topic: Microtonal Scales

Hello Pianoteq users, composers and sound creators,

since I bought Pianoteq Pro, I am stunned by the sheer infinite possibilities of building your own custom sound of any instrument available for Pianoteq. Yesterday I tried to exhaust the opportunity of creating own scales by programming microtonal scales. I was inspired by the Microtone Piano by Sauter, which is tuned in sixteenth tone steps. Here is a sound example of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdAY-RhRhls

Eventually I programmed three kinds of microtonal scales:

Quarter tone scale:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/sd94fcp32..._scale.scl

Eighth tone scale:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1u1xydiul..._scale.scl

Sixteenth tone scale:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/072uc80vu..._scale.scl


Unfortunately the octave of sixteenth tone scale is out of the 88 keys range but you are able to write notes higher and lower than the 88 keys of a piano in your DAW.

If you don't know how to open scale presets in Pianoteq, just put them via drag and drop on interface.


What do you think about these scales?


Best regards,
L3nnard

Last edited by L3nnard (26-10-2016 16:45)

Reply by Fildam

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Re: Microtonal Scales

Thanks for sharing these scale settings L3nnard! I was just looking for the quarter tone but the eighth and sixteenth are quite interesting, I was surprised how inspiring they were after experimenting a bit with them.

Best regards

Reply by Jo Ouareu

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Re: Microtonal Scales

Hello,

Thank you for posting the links to your microtonal scales. I have composed music using 1/16th tone and 1/14 tone tuning and wanted to work with 1/4 tone and 1/6th tone. Your 1/4 tone link saved me some trouble working it out for Pianoteq. Would you have Scala file for 1/6th tone tuning (36-EDO) you could share? As I see your message dates from 2016, I hope you are still active on the forum. Best regards

Reply by Zumadale

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Re: Microtonal Scales

Jo Ouareu wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for posting the links to your microtonal scales. I have composed music using 1/16th tone and 1/14 tone tuning and wanted to work with 1/4 tone and 1/6th tone. Your 1/4 tone link saved me some trouble working it out for Pianoteq. Would you have Scala file for 1/6th tone tuning (36-EDO) you could share? As I see your message dates from 2016, I hope you are still active on the forum. Best regards

Rough sounding....wonder how anyone plays it?  Cool concept though....but I'd have a hard time playing along with recordings with this.

Pianoteq 8 Standard-Chord AI - Android App (displays chords)-Kawai VPC1
Real Samick (Stencil) Parlor Grand (5'6")-Focusrite 6i6 2nd

Reply by bani223

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Re: Microtonal Scales

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?file=9x4just.scl [Jo Ouareu] Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but here is an approximation of 36edo I found at https://en.xen.wiki/w/9x4just . To make your own scala files, create a text file named someweirdscale.scl with the text, e.g. from the xenharmonic wiki. I tested it in Pianoteq 8 and it does what it sounds like it should do: divides up each octave into 36 parts.

Last edited by bani223 (03-05-2023 02:32)
Soundblaster ZXR, ASIO4ALL. 96khz, ~2ms buffer. Little to no pop/crackle on Realtime priority.
I have posted several times about tweaking Pianoteq

Reply by Jo Ouareu

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Re: Microtonal Scales

bani223 wrote:

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?file=9x4just.scl [Jo Ouareu] Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but here is an approximation of 36edo I found at https://en.xen.wiki/w/9x4just . To make your own scala files, create a text file named someweirdscale.scl with the text, e.g. from the xenharmonic wiki. I tested it in Pianoteq 8 and it does what it sounds like it should do: divides up each octave into 36 parts.


Thank you bani123. Your file seems to be right. I adjusted the diapson slightly so that keyboard Middle C matches the standard. I wonder about the indication "just" in the name, implying a just tuning is being used and will see what happens when I try an equal tempered setting to it, though I must admit that  the 9x4just sounds good as it is. Also thanks for the advice about working with scala files.