Help with understanding Microtuning (Microwave 1)

machine.cuisine · Joined: Jul 20, 2007 Posts: 61 Location: ks Audio files: 4

I've been excited to explore "microtunings" for a while, and I now have a Waldorf Microwave 1 (uWave) polyphonic synthesizer which allows user programmable tuning tables.
I'm not educated enough in music theory to take an article (usually expressing a tuning in cents and ratios) and transcribe it to a usable/programmable form. Although, as I type this, I have a feeling that I will try very hard to learn and understand...at least enough to get one going.

At this point, what I would like to know is, using the parameters available to me, how can I translate various tunings (cents or ratios) I find and apply them to the uWave's tuning method?

Here is the tuning method available to me:

I can assign each MIDI note number (keys C-2 to G-Eight) :

a. a separate pitch (adjustable in semitones)

b. a seperate fine-tune value (that detunes the pitch +/- a semitone)

According to a website, the Microwave 1 allows 1.56 cents of scale resolution.

For example, I've been reading (and would love to try) the "Partch 43 Tone" scale. All articles I've found on this reference the scale in "cents and ratios". So, how can these 'cents' I'm reading be translated into the above options (semitones and detuning of a semitone)?

Perhaps this 43 Tone scale is impossible to pull off using these parameters...what about some of the "famous" Bach tunings?

Any help or direction is sincerely appreciated.

seraph · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 7:59 am Post subject:

I think the only reasonable way to retune your synth is to use some software application that does the calculations for you.
check this page out for many interesting links about this matter and then report to me immediately Very Happy

AndyHal · Joined: Feb 17, 2008 Posts: 14 Location: Greenwich

Was not aware the Waldorf Microwave was capable of microtuning.
I recently purchased a Ketron SD2 Orchestral Wizard sound module, which has that same resolution you said of 1.56 cent and I am using the latest version of the Microtuner software for Mac: with this setup I achieved a decent emulation of the Partch scale by using a new function called autoremap. The SD2 can only do octave tuning but this function extends its microtuning capabilities to the whole keyboard (not sure how but it works). Also the Bohlen-Pierce scale is Ok with this setup, and the SD2 has some great sounds indeed although being quite an affordable piece of gear. Only downside is that the autoremap is a mono-timbral mode so I need to record my arrangements one track at a time.

seraph · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 6:31 am Post subject:

Hi AndyHal
the Ketron SD2 is a very nice polytimbral little sound module. There should be a way to polytimbrally retune it. One is using LMSO. That's the one I use and its creator, X.J.Scott, is a member here.
Very Happy

AndyHal · Joined: Feb 17, 2008 Posts: 14 Location: Greenwich

Well I know can retune the SD2 and keep multi-timbral operation using the same program but that option is limited to 12-tone octave messages only. It is essential to me to have maximum expressiveness through modulation and I don't want to sacrifice pitchbending as a microtuning option (that's why I don't like it in general). Does LMSO allow for multi-timbral microtuning without any pitchbend trick?

seraph · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:44 am Post subject:

xjscott · Joined: Apr 25, 2007 Posts: 232 Location: Appalachia

Hey Andy, does the SD2 have two MIDI input jacks? I see on their product page they say it receives 32 MIDI channels and is 32 part multitimbral.

And since it works with the newest release of Max Magic, I assume the SD2 accepts MTS 12 note tuning messages.

...OK, I found the manual. It only has one MIDI input jack. No idea how something could receive on 32 channels using a single MIDI input jack, that's strange. They are using a manufacturer id of hex(26), which belongs to Solton, I guess they changed their name. Annoyingly, they have their own private version of 12 note tuning messages which is the same as the GS/XG/GM format, mostly differing by the manufacturers id and providing no benefit. I think the 12 note formats are not very useful, as you are finding out.

These sorts of boxes I retune multitimbrally by dividing up the 16 channels into subsets each with a relevant patch. So I might have 8 channels for piano, a 4 voice guitar, 2 channel something, couple of mono instruments, then retune each in LMSO with its own Nuscale retuner. In LMSO you can have as many retuners as you want for each external instrument.

LMSO's Nuscale algorithms are a lot more fancy than those of other programs, so the pitch bend method actually works, including with small numbers of voices. I am aware that many people have not been satisfied with more limited implementations of the general method found in some other programs, but those problems don't affect LMSO.

I use Nuscale to retune instruments on most of my own compositions, and you've heard Carlo's work as well.

You asked if LMSO allows for multitimbral tuning without pitchbends, sure, it depends on the instrument. I don't find pitch bend to be a trick though, I find it to be without any doubt whatsover the best and most expressive method of microtuning possible with MIDI instruments. Why is this? Well, I can dynamically modulate to other roots in real time like Wendy Carlos did on Just Imaginings on Beauty in the Beast, I can retune any note to any pitch live while playing, I can move the frets around in real time while playing like one would with a sitar, I can tune instruments by ear directly from my MIDI controller, I can have scales with multiple layers and switch between them with footpedals without any glitching, I can play guitar style bend effects on most any instrument, and if I need to, I can even convert an instrument to allow it to have scales with thousands or tens of thousands of notes available at once by using LMSO as a single-note retuning front end for other instruments. There is not a single instrument in the world that has even a fraction of these capabilities, and they are all possible for most MIDI instruments using LMSO's Nuscale retuner.

LMSO has lots and lots of other ways to retune, many particular to specific instruments, but using pitchbends via Nuscale is overwhelmingly the most versatile and powerful.

Andy, I wonder if you could explain further what you meant when you said "I don't want to sacrifice pitchbending as a microtuning option (that's why I don't like it in general)". Did you mean that you can not do expressive pitch bends when doing pitch bend microtuning? If so, that is not a limitation with LMSO at all, you have full control over expressive pitch bending, including an expanded number of pitch bend modes, and the ability to latch any bend, or even a multibend to be the current tuning of all keys in that key class, instantly, just by tapping a foot pedal, live, while playing. It's pretty cool and works every bit as intuitively and organically as tuning an acoustic string instrument.

AndyHal · Joined: Feb 17, 2008 Posts: 14 Location: Greenwich

xjscott · Joined: Apr 25, 2007 Posts: 232 Location: Appalachia

And back to the original question:

xjscott · Joined: Apr 25, 2007 Posts: 232 Location: Appalachia

seraph · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:41 pm Post subject:

AndyHal · Joined: Feb 17, 2008 Posts: 14 Location: Greenwich

xjscott · Joined: Apr 25, 2007 Posts: 232 Location: Appalachia

Thanks Andy for the tip about the manual. I corrected the above table to have the right information for entering the Partch 43 scale using the instrument's front panel editing. Also found out the Microwave 2 does not seem to support microtuning.

The Microwave 1 can indeed be programmed remotely, I went ahead and added complete support for it to LMSO.

machine.cuisine, if you're feeling adventurous I would be happy to send you a MIDI file made with LMSO that should instantly retune your Microwave to the Partch 43 scale. (just ask me if you'd like to be the first to test this!)