Microtuning & MTS

I think it would work better using @PeterHanes suggestion, but then it depends on what type of “microtonal” music you want to make.
User scales wouldn’t be that useful to me; I would likely enjoy tuning a monophonic synth sequence by ear with p locks if I had pitch control at the cents level.
But I understand some work very differently. It seems if you’re changing the range of volts per musical interval, the whole 12 TET tuning table is thrown off, no? Not sure what the goal is, but seems an arduous way to get quarter tone increments.

Here’s a frequency table file for pitchbend values that can be p-locked to create microtonal notes at desired frequencies.
A4 microtonal chart.xlsx (2.9 MB)

There’s 3 worksheets to this excel file. If you have a custom scale (e.g. made in scala) with a set of tuning frequencies, you can make a note of the necessary values from the table corresponding to the desired frequencies, then program them in either with the A4 sequencer, or an external sequencer.
The first worksheet is fixed with the A4 master tune set at 440Hz.
The next 2 are probably more useful.

Set your master tune in the box at the top and the table will update accordingly.
The “A4 seq” worksheet gives you the coarse and fine tune values to P-lock in order to get the desired frequencies (this assumes that each note of a sequence is A5)
The “Ext seq” page allows you to get the same results with an external sequencer that can send pitch bend data. Program the corresponding note and pitch bend value to get the desired frequencies.

Not a solution to playing custom scales live, but at least a workaround for programming sequences.

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+1 for user scales. Korg pulled this off on the entry level Monologue, DSI supports user scales in the Prophet 12 and Rev2, so somebody is asking for this stuff.

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Hello, I want to ask people here to know if some of you are using the analog four as a microtonal synth,

I’ve tried, controlling from CC (OT or MD) macro1 who is dedicated to control a depth of a value of 1 to the second knob of osc1 as FM).

In this way I can listen some really tiny sound differences, but is it microtonal ?

Did some of you succeeded in some other way to use Analog4 as a microtonal synth ? With CC for examples ?

Thanks dears <3

I just need microtonal scale on A4…

Elektron, please, add micro-tuning to your instruments :heat:

Korg and Dave Smith could.

I belive in you!

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It’s not a dealbreaker, but I would really really like this. It adds a lot more possibilities than, say, another filter or any number of other things that people get excited about. Maybe it wouldn’t be too arduous to implement on the digital machines? I’d buy a Digitone tomorrow if it had alternate tunings.

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Doable with a regular keyboard and a midi processor, mapping fine tune to specific notes.

From what I heard, Robert Rich had to pound on DSI for several years to get microtuning implemented.

Korg put it in the Monologue because it was a collaboration with Aphex Twin. Korg has also been making “oriental” versions of their high-end arranger keyboards for years, because there’s good demand for such things in Turkey, the Middle East, etc. - typically with support for maqam (Arabic) and other tuning schemes.

To get Elektron to add it, get their high-profile artists to catch the microtuning bug and thus start demanding it - see the pattern with Korg and DSI above?

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What midi processor could do this?

yeah, It was a drawback for me to, all FM synths had micro-tuning begining from DX7.

Not saying microtuning wouldn’t be a great feature, but not holding my breath as elektron seems to be simplifying their devices more and more these days…

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Retrokits Rk002 for example. Tracks have to be monophonic.

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An Audiothingies Micromonsta might be an option. Cute little digital polysynth with microtuning support.

A bit more costly than a MIDI processor, but costs less than a Digitone :wink:

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Cute indeed. I think I’ll get a 2nd one.
But there are Microtuning limitations :

Bulk Tuning Dumps are global, all the patches will be affected. They are not stored in Micromonsta memory, this means that each time you power it off, it will lose your custom tuning, and you will need to send it again for the working session

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+1 for microtuning capability in the Digitakt

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Kind of a bummer. Can you reload your custom tuning from anywhere other than a desktop computer or laptop? If not, that severely limits the usability of the Micromonsta for live gigging with custom tunings.

You need a device able to send sysex.
Mpc, other sequencers, midi processors like Event Processor Plus, RK002, Bomebox…

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Ok, I think I can work with that. It’s more of an old school approach - the sequencer loads everything into the slave synths. :wink:

A4 + Microtuning(Scala import)=Dream machine1
Digitone + Microtuning(Scala import)=Dream Machine2

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Lack of proper MPE and or custom tunings for these machine is what is holding me back getting them right now.
Love the sequencers, otherwise they are too limited for my use sadly.