LinPlug Organ 3 - Manual (Page 45)

Appendix D: 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 microtuning 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.
LinPlug Organ 3 User Guide Page 45