Software suggestions

Hi!

I'm looking for an easy program to compose midi files with
microtonality. It should allow multiple parts. Preferably interval-
based than scale-based. My music generally rise or fall in pitch, so
the "tonic" isn't the same in the start and the end. I can of course
solve this by doing a scale with many steps, but a program that focus
on interval would be even better. If there is possibility to compose
in a classic note system and then playback it, it would be great!

I downloaded Fractal Tunes, but found it very hard to use. Not
because of the acoustics, which I'm familiar to, but in which window
things are. I'm still trying to find the window where I can compose
my own scale. The online help tells how to do it, but not where it is.

regards
Johan Westman

johanwestman2003 wrote:

>
> Hi!
>
> I'm looking for an easy program to compose midi files with
> microtonality. It should allow multiple parts. Preferably interval-
> based than scale-based. Harmony Assistant can do interval-based microtonality based on rules defining the function of a pitch. There's a free tryout download -- look at the rules that come with the package for Barbershop and horns in JI; you can write similar rules for your own schemes.

Daniel Wolf

Daniel/Johan,

{you wrote...}
>Harmony Assistant ...

URLs are our friends:
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/harmony.htm

Cheers,
Jon

Daniel Wolf wrote...

> Harmony Assistant can do interval-based microtonality based on rules
> defining the function of a pitch. There's a free tryout download -- look

I've worked with the demo a bit, and am still wavering about whether to
buy, because the microtonality is limited and can be hard to work with.

There are some caveats when working with Harmony Assistant and
microtonality. It can re-tune each note up to 200 cents away from nominal
12tet, so you can't have quite arbitrary tunings. And, setting up a
different tuning can be *really* time consuming, and non-obvious, and
painful. The only way to do it is with a series of pop-up panels for each
note class; no easy file-based method of definition. Also, rules are set
per score, and stored in rule files which you can read in. But once you
have set a composition to e.g., one kind of meantone, you can't reset it
to some another tuning without a lot of work... it seems. (Someone with
more experience than I might have a different opinion.)

(On the bright side, Harmony Assistant *can* distinguish between flats and
sharps, and give you different pitches, so working with 17tet can be
fairly easy. And the "Virtual Singer" can give you a fair idea of what your
songs might sound like. I've used Finale to export song sheets in
Music-XML, then imported into Harmony Assistant, which can then "sing" the
song. Much cheaper than Cantor, for example.)

Rick