SCALA (Help!)

Hi, everyone! I have downloaded SCALA and am suspecting that I can
use it to generate actual scales that I can play with to build midi
files I can hear. I would like to know for sure whether SCALA can do
this and if so, how. I have myriad microtonal ideas floating around
in my head at this point that I would like to turn into sound for
feedback and further experimentation!

Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,

Bob

--- In tuning@y..., BobWendell@t... wrote:

> Hi, everyone! I have downloaded SCALA and am suspecting that I can
> use it to generate actual scales that I can play with to build midi
> files I can hear.

Ditto. I know I can create actual scala format scales, having done
so. Now what?

Still shocked by yesterday's events, I wish strength to
everybody involved in the drama.

Bob, Scala's main feature it to transfer a scale to the
tuning table of a synthesizer or sampler. If you don't
have one, or want to use the computer's soundcard to
play a scale interactively, you need Fractal Tune Smithy
by Robert Walker or Midirelay by Graham Breed.
After installing FTS you can load or make a scale in Scala,
type "@smithy" in the command line. When Smithy runs, click
on the "Scale..." button. Then you can use the mouse, the
number keys on the keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard to play and
record. With Midirelay you can use a MIDI keyboard in the
same way and this also simulates a tuning table.
For making MIDI files of a composition, you can prepare a
MIDI file with a sequencer or, more cumbersome by translating
a text file to MIDI, and then put it in the proper tuning
with "example/midi" in Scala. Or you can follow Herman
Miller's way of working, see his earlier postings. I also
wish there were sequencers fully supporting microtonality.

Manuel

Thank you, Manuel and all others who have expressed them, for your
good wishes! Although I'm in the rural midwest, this touches
everyone. I have a good friend from my home town who lives in New
York and don't know how he is yet. It's unlikely he was there, but
his job could have easily taken him to the WTC at any time. He was
supposed to visit here this weekend, but I don't think that's going
to happen now.

Many people here have friends and/or relatives in the NY area and
some are naturally quite concerned. So you can feel the weight of
this in the air quite strongly even here. Clearly the previously
pervasive U.S. mindset that such things only happen overseas has been
very effectively erased.

Thank you also, Manuel, for your quick response on the request for
help with SCALA. Very much appreciated!

Sincerely,

Bob

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:
>
> Still shocked by yesterday's events, I wish strength to
> everybody involved in the drama.
>
> Bob, Scala's main feature it to transfer a scale to the
> tuning table of a synthesizer or sampler. If you don't
> have one, or want to use the computer's soundcard to
> play a scale interactively, you need Fractal Tune Smithy
> by Robert Walker or Midirelay by Graham Breed.
> After installing FTS you can load or make a scale in Scala,
> type "@smithy" in the command line. When Smithy runs, click
> on the "Scale..." button. Then you can use the mouse, the
> number keys on the keyboard, or a MIDI keyboard to play and
> record. With Midirelay you can use a MIDI keyboard in the
> same way and this also simulates a tuning table.
> For making MIDI files of a composition, you can prepare a
> MIDI file with a sequencer or, more cumbersome by translating
> a text file to MIDI, and then put it in the proper tuning
> with "example/midi" in Scala. Or you can follow Herman
> Miller's way of working, see his earlier postings. I also
> wish there were sequencers fully supporting microtonality.
>
> Manuel