Microtuning, Alternative Tunings - CAKEWALK Z3TA+ 2.1 Bedienungsanleitung

Microtuning, alternative tunings

Microtuning has been an interesting field of research for musicians and physicists for years. Several
synthesizers have included some sort of microtuning abilities to allow performers to use alternative
tunings to the standard 12-tone equal-tempered system.
One of the powerful features in Z3TA+ is that it can load native Scala™™ .scl microtuning files.
Scala is a powerful freeware software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just
intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non-
Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of
electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a
single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale creation methods.
Scala is ideal for the exploration of tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved.
In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or
music creation.
For more information about Scala, visit www.huygens-fokker.org/scala.
To load a microtuning definition file, select Load Tuning File under the Options button. When a
microtuning file is active, the filename is shown in this menu option.
Not limited to 12-tone scales, Z3TA+ microtuning allows for any number of notes, including mean-
tone and quarter-tone scales.
When a tuning with a different number of tones than 12 is loaded, the Octave control adds or
subtracts the selected scale number of tones to keep the oscillators in unison when changing
octaves. The arpeggiator will also skip the number of tones to follow the scales correctly.
Z3TA+ includes many Scala tuning definition files with the default installation. When new tuning files
become available, they can be downloaded from www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/downloads.html.
If you download new tuning files, be sure to extract the .scl files to the Tunings folder in order to
allow Z3TA+ to recall them for every program.
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Microtuning, alternative tunings