If you are looking for a quick introduction to microtonal scales in computer music, then I invite you to watch my latest tutorial video.

Using Microtones in Electronic Music explains how to tune software synths to microtonal scales, for composition and production using a DAW-based workflow.

Microtonal music is a deep topic, and this tutorial video is just one possible starting point. If you know of alternative approaches then please do share your knowledge with others!

Contents

0:00 Intro
0:30 What software
2:00 Tuning up
2:35 5edo
4:37 Messing around with 19edo
14:40 19edo semaphore[9]
18:19 A golden ratio inspired tuning
27:00 Some chords of 22edo
32:07 How a song like Gleam looks on piano roll

Links mentioned in the video

• The big list of microtonal software synth plugins
• Scale Workshop – if your synth supports .scl files, .tun files or Kontakt scripts, this web app will get you creating tunings quickly in those formats
• Otherwise use Scala which can retune many other synthesizers including hardware synths