LinPlug MorphoX - Manual (Page 47)

Appendix B: Using TUN Files
By Jacky Ligon
About Microtuning
Microtuning, or "microtonality" are methods for tuning musical instruments
whereby musicians may explore and compose with ethnic, historical and
contemporary tuning-systems. Microtuning musical instruments allows one
to use scales which may have pitches lying between the notes of our
familiar Western 12 tone scale. These pitches which are found in the
'cracks' of 12 Tone Equal Temperament are one of the things that give
music's of Bali, India, Africa, Thailand, Turkey and the Middle East (to name
but a few) a special intonational flavor, but is something that is of
immeasurable value to the contemporary acoustic and electronic composer,
who may require a more broad palette of musical pitches for their music.
The quest for creating beautiful and musically useful tuning-systems has
been an unending process of discovery and debate amongst musical
theorists, mathematicians, physicists and musicians going back to early
history. Quite often the reasons for micro-tuning instruments may involve
improving the consonant intervals of a tuning-system for sweeter sounding
harmonies, as well as offering wider variety of choices for melody.
"Microtuning" an instrument can sometimes mean there may be less or
more than 12 tones in an octave, or even that the octave itself may be
stretched or compressed. Microtuning is a vast topic, rich with lore, music
and an infinity of musical possibilities for the sonic explorer.
Creating TUN microtuning files with SCALA
Scala is a freeware utility developed by Manuel Op de Coul in the
Netherlands, which can be used for the creation and analysis of historical,
ethnic and contemporary microtunings. A powerful capability of Scala is
that it enables the user to create the proprietary tuning data required for
microtuning a wide range of hardware and software synthesizers and
samplers.
Scala may be used to create the TUN format microtuning-files needed to
explore microtunings with this instrument.
The Scala home page is http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/
Specifying the Reference Frequency of a Microtuning
MorphoX user manual 1.1.0 page 47