I resenlty have become interested in microtonal compositions and i was wondering if anyone else has dived into this area and has any suggestions on some good material (mostly stuff on the theroy behind it) to get started.

ok how about this. any ideas on some good software for microtone notation. cuz i tried on final notpad but i dont think that supports it unless i just cant figure how to set it up for that. i use A C toolbox or supercollider for the generation of them but i would like just a notation program.

hello,

unfortunately i don't have any success stories to share about notating microtones. Worth looking into is sagittal notation, capable of notating an astounding variety of tuning systems. Downloadable font is there, along with some scripts I wrote to facilitate the use of them in Sibelius. I wish I had a completed score to show you but I don't.

in any case I will recommend scala (for free) which will enable you to explore aurally and theoretically as many tunings as you want to. It can retune midi files intelligently and also do live retuning if you have a midi keyboard.

for sequencing, there is the possibility of using csound with blue, which apparently has a microtonal piano-roll capability.

also worth looking into is X.J. Scott's Li'l Miss Scale Oven which can do oh so much.

As far as learning about microtonality in general from the internet, I have found the writings of Ivor Darreg to be extremely informative and inspiring, Kyle Gann's tuning page very helpful in clearing the air on just intonation, and Erv Wilson's writings completely confusing yet at times enlightening.

I hope this is helpful.

Hey cheese, just a question on the scala and lil´miss scale oven (and others). If i tune my dx7 in some unorthodox way, will the midi-data it outupts still be unorthodoxly tuned? That is, could I tune my dx7 and then play, record and edit that tuned midi-data in ProTools or other sequencer? Could I play any software instrument with the midi-data sent from the dx7?

Not a master of midi myself, more into cutting and pasting audio. Have been doing some microtonal stuff in that manner, with pitchshifting of audiosegments. Would be really nice to play microtonal stuff in a more intuitive way.

I'm pretty sure that if a synth has built-in customizable tunings, the midi data is sent and received uncorrupted. Not sure about dx7.

otherwise, if you use scala's live retuning it basically reroutes one channel of input to up to sixteen channels of output, with the needed pitch bends on each channel. I have successfully seqenced microtonal stuff in Metro SE, simply telling it to output to Scala, which then sends its usual stuff to the synth.

So yes, it should be possible. Best wishes in your explorations.

My friend Andrew was REALLY into microtonality for a while. He's assembled a listening list.

Andrew's Microtonal Listening List

Feel free to email him about microtonality. I'm sure he can set you off in the right direction. For creation, one of the things he always talked to me about was the L'il Miss' Scale Oven.

My first post here!

Here's what I can offer off the top of my head:

I'm a member of the Just Intonation Network (justintonation.net on the web) and the tuning group at Yahoo, and own about 20 books on tuning, I'm obsessive.

My favorite recordings:
Toby Twining's Chrysalid Requiem
Catler Brother's "Crash Landing" (microtones.com)
Any good barbershop quartetting (barbershop.org, youcansingtoo.com)

The best book on the subject: Harmonic Experience by WA Mathieu
Others worth checking:
The Just Intonation Primer (published by the network listed above)
Harmonograph (search Amazon)
Genesis Of A Music by Harry Partch
Tuning Timbre Spectrum Scale by Bill Sethares

Umm... the best links online: see groups.yahoo.com/tuning, and tonalsoft.com

That should do you for now. Barbershop quartetting is what got me hooked by the way, and still ranks as the most musical microtonality to me. It's not interesting for being experimental or different, it's just damn good.

-Aaron