How to get alternate tunings in M5 instruments?

[joelfriedman]

Hi All,

I'm trying to find out how to create/implement non-traditional tunings (e.g. 1/4 tone, 1/3 tone, non-Western divisions of the octave) for instruments in MachFive for a current film score project. What I'm after is:
1. Altering a given M5 instrument, for example a harp, so that it is no longer tuned normally.
2. Being able to call up BOTH a normally tuned harp and the altered harp within the same project (same or different instantiations). You could think of it like the Charles Ives pieces for 2 pianos tuned a 1/4 tone apart.
3. Applying this technique to other instruments as well (why not marimba, flute, piano?)s.
4. Applying the technique to other Motu VI's (e.g. Ethno, or MX4) or VI's from other manufacturers.

Surely there must be a reasonable way of doing this. Could it be done within M5, on my keyboard, as a custom pitch map within DP??? Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Joel

[carrythebanner]

Individual keygroups can be fine tuned +/- 100 cents. Look for the Fine Tune knob in the Pitch section below the keyboard.

[joelfriedman]

Thanks. I'll research this. I guess I was looking, nay, HOPING there was a better, more elegant "universal" way of doing this than adjusting each pitch "by hand." Would this work on a "pitch class" basis, meaning every D is a D and would be detuned in the same way or is each D a separate pitch to be altered or not? Yikes! Considering that I've heard/used some synth patches that had this effect years ago you'd think it would be easier to do, that there would be "pitch maps" available, and so on.

Best,

Joel

[Kubi]

Don't think there's a easy way to microtune. This may be a good question for MOTU, and/or a good feature request for an update. It should be fairly easy to implement a universal tuning script a la Kontakt.

[carrythebanner]

I guess I was looking, nay, HOPING there was a better, more elegant "universal" way of doing this than adjusting each pitch "by hand."

Definitely, it would be better to have a tuning map or something that you could apply to a preset rather than having to tweak it by hand, but alas MachFive doesn't have that option at the moment.

Would this work on a "pitch class" basis, meaning every D is a D and would be detuned in the same way or is each D a separate pitch to be altered or not?

You can select and edit multiple keygroups simultaneously, so you could select all of the D keygroups and make changes to all D's at once. You'd still need to do that 11 more times to cover all of the notes, but it's better than tweaking every single keygroup in every single octave.

[joelfriedman]

Kubi,

Thanks. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Should I be trying to do this in Kontakt instead?

Best,

Joel

[Kubi]

If you can open the instrument in Kontakt, yes, it's very easy to do it there. I posted a step-by-step in another thread, let me get the link.

here it is:

In Kontakt 3, click on the little wrench icon inside a loaded preset to display the edit screen. Click on the Script Editor tab. Select an empty script tab (so you don't replace a currently active script by accident.) Click to display a script menu (the menu is underneath the script tab's Bypass button toward the left of the script tab's edit window.) Navigate to tuning, then microtuning. You will get a one-octave display with a vertical 'fader" for each pitch class, from C to B. Move up for sharp, down for flat, display in cents. You can save your custom created settings into the user scripts, and recall at will from then on. Pretty awesome.

(I'm assuming Kontakt 4 is similar, haven't checked it in there yet...)

[joelfriedman]

Wow. Thanks. I've decided to get Komplete (or is it InKomplete) 6 so I'll try it out in Kontakt 4. You'd think MOTU would have a way of doing this since aren't some of the ethno sounds microtonal? I've put the question to them....

Best,

Joel

[joelfriedman]

FYI: I posted a question to Motu about this via techlink. It's been two weeks and it's still not even read. Ah well...

Joel