Ever wondered how to get various software synthesisers to play microtonal scales? A while ago I added a lot of info about this to the Xenharmonic Wiki. Summarised below.

Many software plugins (VST, AU, RTAS etc.) allow you to create microtonal music. Not all of them, though. The ones that do mostly accept tuning data by one of the following methods:

• By reading a ‘tuning file’ from the hard disk. (Usually a .tun or .scl file).
• By receiving MTS (MIDI Tuning Standard) data as MIDI SysEx messages.
• By letting the user directly input values. Plugins that don’t have support may still be microtuned by systematically using the pitch bend, however this only works for monophonic parts (unless you use multiple instances of the same plugin).

To find out how your synth can be microtuned, look it up in this table of microtunable software plugins. From there you’ll also find a few free VST downloads to experiment with. Continue reading →