Microtones and Notation Programs?

Hello everybody!

I am very pleased to be here with you. Although I am a composition student and have been composing music that contains microtones for some time, I still find myself new to using programmes for microtonal composition. It's difficult to compose without hearing how the result would sound, especially if one has devided the octave into 48 equal eighth-tones. I used Finale for a while, but with it one gets a kind of "puls" in the pitch with each pitch-bend, which is so disturbing.

So I want to ask if someone of you out of his/her experience could recommend some programme or combination of programmes that didn't have this problem and that could easily connect to a good sound library.

All the Best.
Shergo.

"shergodakouri" <shergodakouri@...> wrote:
> Hello everybody!

How do!

> I am very pleased to be here with you. Although I am a
> composition student and have been composing music that
> contains microtones for some time, I still find myself
> new to using programmes for microtonal composition. It's
> difficult to compose without hearing how the result would
> sound, especially if one has devided the octave into 48
> equal eighth-tones. I used Finale for a while, but with
> it one gets a kind of "puls" in the pitch with each
> pitch-bend, which is so disturbing.

I thought Finale could work with synthesizers with tuning
tables.

> So I want to ask if someone of you out of his/her
> experience could recommend some programme or combination
> of programmes that didn't have this problem and that
> could easily connect to a good sound library.

Lilypond can also tune with pitch bends (the method isn't
fully documented, but you can ask here) and works well with
Timidity. Maybe Timidity isn't your idea of a "good
sound library" but it handles the pitch bends cleanly. I
find the biggest problem with the combination is that the
score is interpreted mechanically. Given that it doesn't
matter much how good the sounds are.

Graham

To shergodakouri and Graham Breed,

FWIW... Finale certainly can output to synths such as Big Tick's Rhino. Use MIDI Yoke to connect up. I use VAZ Modular as my VST engine and insert many channels of Rhino or other synths into it. Both of those VSTs handle ".tun" files for tuning; and Scala can make those .tun files for you.

The latest version of Garritan Personal Orchestra, which works with Finale 2009 and 2010, has built-in Scala support. So it is directly micro-tunable. It works much better than pitch bend, especially with the strings. (It has a drawback or two regarding instrumental range, but basically works.)

See also the slightly out of date:
http://azuma-asobi.com/FTS-HowTo/MicroOrchestra.html

Rick

-------------

Graham Breed wrote:
> "shergodakouri" <shergodakouri@...> wrote:
> >> Hello everybody!
>> >
> How do!
>
> >> I am very pleased to be here with you. Although I am a
>> composition student and have been composing music that
>> contains microtones for some time, I still find myself
>> new to using programmes for microtonal composition. It's
>> difficult to compose without hearing how the result would
>> sound, especially if one has devided the octave into 48
>> equal eighth-tones. I used Finale for a while, but with
>> it one gets a kind of "puls" in the pitch with each
>> pitch-bend, which is so disturbing.
>> >
> I thought Finale could work with synthesizers with tuning
> tables.
>