Scale design software

Scale design software, or a scale designer, is a suite of tools for exploring the properties of scales and sometimes also tuning systems, for creating entirely new scales and tunings, and for semi-guided scale and tuning development based on principles discovered by theorists. The tools provided by a scale designer may include tables showing the scale's pitches in decimal cents, ratios and named interval formats; interval analysis; circular or other graphical mappings; scale or tuning transformations; comparisons between alternatives; and many more.

Scala is one of the most popular, long-standing, and powerful scale and tuning development environments and worth exploring. However, its learning curve is steep and its text-based roots make it less enjoyable to use for some people. More recently developed scale designers are centered on graphical tools that clearly show relationships between scale notes. They are frequently built into tuning plugins, so your preferred scale design software may just be the one that fits your preferred retuning workflow. Other scale designers are standalone apps like Scala, web browser-based, or built into an instrument (e.g. Surge XT).

A few currently popular or notable scale designers are listed below. Most are embedded in software that also performs other functions. You'll find more complete and up-to-date lists in the Tuning manipulation software section of the "List of music software" page, and the Tuner plugins section of the "List of microtonal software plugins" page. Note that not all tuner plugins include a well developed scale designer.

• Scala, from Manuel Op de Coul (standalone)
• Scale Workshop, from Lumi Pakkanen and Sevish (web browser based)
• Entonal Studio, by Entonal (tuner plugin)
• MTS-ESP Suite and MTS-ESP Mini, by ODDsound (tuner plugin)
• Infinitone DMT, by Infinitone (tuner plugin)
• Surge XT, by the Surge Synth Team (synth)