Here’s the thing. I don’t actually like the definition of the word “microtonal.” Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one.
It’s always tricky having a word which is defined by which it is not. And microtonal means any music that uses intervals smaller (or larger) than a Western equal-tempered semitone. Essentially, we can take microtonal to mean any music or scale that isn’t 12-tone equal temperament. This just elevates 12-tet to something much bigger than it really is.
Many microtonalists I talk to these days see the tuning space as containing an infinite number of tunings; 12-tone equal temperament being just another one of them. But the word we use to describe this tuning space really only includes all of those tunings but one (12-edo). Why the disconnect between the definition and the reality?
“Xenharmonic” suffers the same problem. This word means any music that sounds different to 12-tone equal temperament. (Let’s just put aside the slippery problem of what sounds different today becomes familiar tomorrow).
I would prefer xenharmonic to mean: music that sounds different to ANY traditional music (not just Western music). For example, I wouldn’t class maqam music as xenharmonic, because it’s a traditional music. This seems a more useful distinction to make and it removes the cultural bias currently present in the term.
I know that others will disagree, and that’s just fine. Languages and cultures shift all the time.
Microtonal music watch!
Some great music coming from David Fiuczynski this month. I cannot get over the amazing combo of Dilla-esque beats, bird calls and David’s microtonal guitar playing. Looking forward to getting the whole album, but for now this video is a perfect teaser…
You can buy a limited edition yellow LP, CD, or download it from RareNoiseRecords.
Sevish’s new EP MK-SUPERDUPER will be released on April 1st. MK-SUPERDUPER is all about liquid dnb and experimental bass music with xenharmonic scales. I just made a short video on YouTube for the preview.
I had a lot of fun writing these tunes so check them out next Friday!
“Springtime so fine…”
The opening line from Redrick Sultan’s new album ‘Fly as a Kite.’ Around this time of year when the weather gets warmer my appreciation of music increases tenfold.
Redrick Sultan are an acoustic rock band from Vancouver, with a very melodic vocal style underpinned by microtonal guitars to offer just a slight experimental twist. It works perfectly to my ears. Definitely worth checking out.
My personal fave track: jest us
This is not just a “theory”. Sevish produced 3 liquid drum and bass tracks to honor the secret microtonal bass society – the MK-SUPERDUPER conspiracy will be exposed on April 1st.
You can download the first track now if you pre-order MK-SUPERDUPER on my bandcamp page.
Newly released on the split-notes label, a 9-track record of beautifully sculpted xenharmonic electronic music by composer and poet müesk: Eventual
Eventual is full of these atmospheric and evocative pieces which often defy normal expectations of structure, rhythm and tonality in delightful ways. The download also includes a short collection of poems.
This is my answer to the question “Sevish, how do you make your music?”
I won’t discuss my creative process but I’ll explain my workflow and the tools used to get music made. What I like about my workflow is that it works superbly for me.
I use Ableton Live to write, record, and mix my music. Within Live, I load VST instruments that have built-in microtonal scale support. I use Scala to produce the tuning files necessary to retune those VSTis. I play the VSTis using my MIDI keyboard, C-Thru AXiS-49, QWERTY keyboard and through mouse input. I also sample recordings that I have made using my Zoom H4n portable recorder.
Ableton Live is a DAW (digital audio workstation) that has an effective workflow for electronic music. For my drum’n’bass, breakbeat electronic, it works just fine. Live has no built-in microtonal scale support, and the piano roll is always locked to a 12-note Halberstadt layout, which can be tricky.
It’s possible to make microtonal music in Ableton Live by using VST instruments or Max 4 Live instruments with microtuning support built in. As far as Ableton knows, MIDI data goes into these instruments and audio comes out. It’s up to the instruments themselves to provide the new tunings and scales that I use in my music.
I use a couple of Max 4 Live instruments that I made myself, plus several VSTi: Xen-Arts FMTS2, IVOR, XenFont, TAL-Sampler, u-he ACE and Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. All of these plugins have full keyboard tuning support, which is why I choose to use them. To tune up, they each require you to import a tuning file. I’ll elaborate on that later.
Before writing a piece, it works well to have an idea already of the tuning you want to use. Scala can be used to invent musical tunings or specify an old one. I have written about how to invent your own scales with Scala, described other superbly expressive tunings that already exist, and hand-selected some interesting scales to download.
Once I have a scale in Scala that bends my ear in just the right way, it must be exported as a tuning file for it to be usable in those VST instruments. The common formats are:
I wrote a guide to exporting .tun files, and the process is much the same for producing MIDI tuning dumps and .txt tuning files.
(If you’re a Max/MSP or Max 4 Live user, I also wrote a guide to microtuning your patches with the coll object, and microtuning using expr).
After I have some tuning files to work with I’ll load them up in one of my synths, and jam away until I play something I really like. I don’t go too deep in to the theory of it all; I leave that up to others. Using your ear and finding sounds you like is a good way to go.
I like to record sounds on location with my H4n portable recorder. After recording I keep the audio in my personal sound library until I’m ready to use them in a project.
I almost never use the preset sounds on my synths. It’s best to patch in your own sound designs because that becomes a recognisable part of your craft. It’s well worth practicing this skill for yourself. Some days I do nothing but come up with new sound designs with my fave synths. That way I can save them in my personal library and use them only when inspiration strikes.
The AXiS-49 is a hexagonal keyboard controller, and it’s best suited to exploring microtonal scales because it makes fingering really easy. Imagine trying to play a 15-note scale on a standard keyboard where the pattern repeats after every 12 notes… The fingering gets totally perplexing and that gets in the way of creativity. With the AXiS that’s no problem at all. The AXiS also greatly increases my reach, so I can play large chords easily.
The difficulty I find with the AXiS is that I use so many different tunings that it’s difficult to build up a muscle memory for any of them. And the buttons are so close together that I make mistakes quite easily.
It comes in handy to have a standard keyboard at times. I was given a 2 octave MIDI controller with some knobs on it which I can map to various functions in my DAW. Using this to recording automation in real-time is one way to breathe some life into a static synthesised part.
I mix and master in Ableton Live, then publish on my Bandcamp, YouTube and Soundcloud pages. Which you should definitely check out.
I was recently interviewed by UnTwelve’s Aaron Krister Johnson and our conversation was published on their website today. We talked about the making microtonal music accessible to general audiences, the split-notes label, gear, composition and tuning.
Ever had that musical crisis where you realise there are only 12 notes in music, and only so many combinations to use them? That crisis that nothing is original anymore and everything you have written has already been written?
Yeah we all get that at some point. It goes away when you learn that there are more than 12 notes in an octave.
These 9 tunings are for experimenters who want to push the boundaries of their own music. These aren’t necessarily the 9 best tunings ever, since there’s no such thing. (By all means, if you disagree then share your favourite tunings in the comments!)
Oh and by the way, the title of this post was a clever ruse; you can use these tunings on the guitar if you’re willing to pull out the frets and rearrange them differently on the fretboard. Check out Steven James Taylor, Jute Gyte, Cryptic Ruse, MonoNeon (on bass), Paul Erlich, ilevens, Dave Fiuczynski, Jon Catler, Microtonal Guitar Duo…
Now that you know we’re talking about real alternative tunings and not DADGAD, let’s begin…
If I had to stick with one scale for the rest of my life, it would be 22-edo. It has such a variety of sounds from the familiar to the xenharmonic. It also sounds amazing for solo piano music. What’s most interesting is that the familiar sounds (for example major and minor chords) don’t connect to each other in the same way, such that chord progressions necessarily make surprising turns while the individual chords aren’t necessarily xenharmonic.
You could also treat 22-edo as a superpyth temperament, so that it has a diatonic scale just like 12-edo but with one important difference – the major thirds are much sharper and the minor thirds are much flatter. So if you like jangly sounds, this is it right here. Oh and interestingly, the A# turns out to be sharper than the Bb, which betrays the intuition of today’s 12-tone musicians who would think of them as the same note.
Pajara temperament is another lens from which to view 22-edo. Paul Erlich wrote a fascinating paper on the decatonic (10-note) modes of 22-edo which relate to pajara. These decatonic scales are sometimes symmetrical around the tritone, and they use the harmonic 7th (think of a barbershop 7th ringing chord) as an essential part of the harmony. In fact, Paul’s decatonic modes see the tonic chord as a tetrad (4-note chord) instead of the usual triad. So it’s like music++.
Porcupine temperament (yes, these are all real and understood names used by tuning theorists) is yet another new tonality that can be accessed via 22-edo. In porcupine’s case, you can play a 7-note scale scale that contains 2 major triads and 2 minor triads, and these triads can also include the 11th harmonic (a fourth that’s a quarter-tone sharp, sounds amazing).
You can’t get much more ‘alternative’ than this: let’s do away with the octave altogether and make a scale that repeats at the perfect twelfth (aka tritave). Then let’s fill the scale with ratios that only contain odd numbers.
Of course I’m talking about the Bohlen-Pierce scale, discovered independently by at least 2 different people.
You can even make a temperament of the Bohlen-Pierce scale by dividing the tritave into 13 equal parts. It sounds really good too, but not in the traditional sense at all. It sounds good in an alien yet harmonious, future-tonality kind of way. Continue reading
Next Xen, a compilation album of music using alternative tunings, has just been released on the split-notes label!
The album features myself (Sevish), Banaphshu with Kraig Grady, Brendan Byrnes (ft. Louis Lopez), Carlos Devizia, Tony Dubshot, Jacky Ligon, Miekko, John Moriarty, Mosstone, Steve Mueske, Mythshifter, Robin Perry, Joseph Post, Carlo Serafini, Tall Kite, Elaine Walker, and Ozan Yarman (Ph.D.)
This free album is a snapshot of the online microtonal music community at the start of 2016 and shows a variety of approaches to groove-based microtonal/xenharmonic music. Check out the included liner notes to find out more about each artist and their approach to microtonality. If this is your first experience with microtonal music, then listen well and welcome to the madness!!
