Helpful ReplyAttaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just)

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tbaroni
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2013/01/15 19:24:16 (permalink)

Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just)

[size=2 font="times new roman"]I generally type in Barbershop Quartet music (all four parts) in midi to help me learn a new piece.  What I’d like to do is adjust  the pitches of the notes to accommodate Just Intonation.  (Barbershop music cannot be played on a piano precisely as many of the notes fall in between the keys.)  So instead of an equally tempered scale, I want to bend each note into a Just Intonation scale.  This is a non-trivial task: even after I calculate what to do (what pitch wheel values I apply to each note), doing it will be a horrendous task – going into the event list and manually adding pitch wheel commands for each note.  I’ll probably have to write a CAL program for it and I’ll get wrapped around an axel trying to figure out how to do that.
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[size=2 font="times new roman"]But I’m guessing that it’s already buried in the software somewhere: in one of those plug-ins, or part of that “snap to scale” button that I have yet to figure out.
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[size=2 font="times new roman"]Anybody been there and got some guidance  for me?
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..    Tony
..    HP Pavilion P6000, Sonar X2 Studio (build 306) x64, Tascam US-144 mkII
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daveny5
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Re:Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just) 2013/01/16 00:07:58 (permalink) ☄ Helpful
Use Dimension Pro and select the Pitch modulator view and right click on the diagonal line section just to the left of the LFO options and it will ask you to load a tunings definition file. If it doesn't list them, navigate to the Program Data-Cakewalk-Dimension Pro-Tunings folder and select any of the hundred or so different tunings. My guess is the ones that start with JI are just intonation, but there are a bunch of those so you may have to do some homework to find the right one. I don't know which one gets you back to equal temperament so "save as" if you change it.

Dave
Computer: Intel i7, ASROCK H170M, 16GB/5TB+, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Sonar Platinum, TASCAM US-16x08, Cakewalk UM-3G MIDI I/F
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wr
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Re:Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just) 2013/01/16 05:04:56 (permalink) ☄ Helpful
DimPro, Rapture, and Z3ta all use the Scala tuning system.  I don't remember if the big set of tuning files are automatically installed for all three programs, or whether it's an option you have to choose.  At any rate, all sorts of alternate tunings are available.

To help figure out which Scala files are what sort of tuning, you can go to the Scala website and look at the contents listing for their scale archive.  It can be found at the bottom of this page -

http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/downloads.html

You can also download the free Scala program from that site, if you want to try your hand at doing it yourself.

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tbaroni
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Re:Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just) 2013/01/16 09:30:31 (permalink)
Thanks for your input, but it didn't get me too far.
Dimension Pro is not available in Studio version I brought up Dimension LE but cannot seem to get help on it.

Rapture I was able to get help, but micro tuning is available only in Producer version.

Z3ta+ has the same problem at Dim LE: can't get the help to come up.

The link wr posted was helpful after I corrected it to scales not scala.

I'll ask about the lack of help problem in a separate post.
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daveny5
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Re:Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just) 2013/01/16 15:08:15 (permalink)
WR's link was correct. It should lead you to a page called Scala Downloads. 

I don't think you will be able to use those scales with the LE versions because those versions only have limited editing capabilities. 

Here's what the z3ta+ Help screen says about it:  (Press F1 in z3ta+).

Microtuning, Alternative tunings
Microtuning has been an interesting field of research for musicians and physicists for years. Several synthesizers have included some sort of microtuning abilities to allow performers to use alternative tunings to the standard 12-tone equal-tempered system.
One of the powerful features in Z3TA+ is that it can load native ScalaTM .scl microtuning files. 
 
Scala is a powerful freeware software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non-Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale creation methods.
Scala is ideal for the exploration of tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved.
In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or music creation.
For more information about Scala, visit http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/ 
 
To load a microtuning definition file, select Load Tuning definition file under the OPTIONS button. When a microtuning file is active, the filename is shown in this menu option.


The tuning definition file selected is remembered and reloaded in a per-preset basis, or as global by selecting Global Tuning in the Options menu. (The files must be moved to the \Tunings folder so the automatic reloading option can find it.)
Not limited to 12-tone scales, Z3TA+ microtuning allows for any number of notes, including mean-tone and quarter-tone scales.
When a tuning with a different number of tones than 12 is loaded, the Octave control adds or subtracts the selected scale number of tones to keep the oscillators in unison when changing octaves. The arpeggiator will also skip the number of tones to follow the scales correctly.


Z3TA+ includes 200 Scala tuning definition files with the default installation. A file with over 2900 tuning definition files (.scl) can be downloaded for free from:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/scales.zip


Check a brief description of the scale files in:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/scalesdir.txt


If you download it, be sure to extract the .scl files to the Tunings folder in order to allow Z3TA+ to recall them for every program.mode  



Dave
Computer: Intel i7, ASROCK H170M, 16GB/5TB+, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Sonar Platinum, TASCAM US-16x08, Cakewalk UM-3G MIDI I/F
Instruments: SL-880 Keyboard controller, Korg 05R/W, Korg N1R, KORG Wavestation EX
Axes: Fender Stratocaster, Line6 Variax 300, Ovation Acoustic, Takamine Nylon Acoustic, Behringer GX212 amp, Shure SM-58 mic, Rode NT1 condenser mic.
Outboard: Mackie 1402-VLZ mixer, TC Helicon VoiceLive 2, Digitech Vocalist WS EX, PODXTLive, various stompboxes and stuff. 
Controllers: Korg nanoKONTROL, Wacom Bamboo Touchpad
#5
tbaroni
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Re:Attaining Intonation ( or adjusting to Just) 2013/01/16 19:22:36 (permalink)
OK.  The help didn't come up for me when I hit F1, (another problem) so thanks for the copy of the help file paragraph.
 
When I got to the scala site, it struck me as a new general purpose programming language, so I backed off; I've already learned and forgotten scores of programming languages.  I did get to the .... scales.zip page which I found very informative.  Unzipping them and viewing them (using the linux VIM editor), I saw may variations of the Just Intonation (JI) scales.  So I learned not only what other sources have yelded: "Just Intonation can be defined in various slightly different ways."  Some of these scales defiined the specific ratios of note frequencies:  The files are just a list of relative note frequencies like: 1/1, 16/15, 9/8, 6/5, 5/4, 4/3, 7/5, 3/2, 8/5, 5/3, 9/5, 15/8, 2/1.  This was very useful to me.
 
Anyway, thanx.  I've got to go check if I got any responses to my query of why I couldn't get help by pressing F1.
 
 
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