Finale Microtonal Accidentals and Playback: Difference between revisions

Finale can be set up to use custom accidentals, and to pipe MIDI data to a VST such that the playback matches the [[notation]].

<ul><li>Finale (not sure on earliest supported version, but 2003 and later should work)</li><li>[http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html LoopBe1 Internal Midi Port]<ul><li>Or similar</li></ul></li><li>[http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm VSTHost]<ul><li>OPTIONAL: Finale can host VSTs itself</li><li>Or similar</li></ul></li><li>A VST with microtonal playback and, ideally, support for .kbm files. There are many options:<ul><li>Pianoteq</li><li>ARIA (comes with Finale 2012 and later)</li><li>ZynSubAddFX</li><li>IVOR</li><li>etc.</li></ul></li><li>[http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/ Scala], or the ability to create .scl and .kbm files, which are just text with fairly simple formats</li></ul>

 

<ol><li>Install all needed tools

 

</li><li>Choosing and creating a [[scale]]

 

You will probably want to choose a scale size around 6-9 notes for the "white" keys (i.e. the notes without accidentals).

 

From there, all the other pitches in your scale will be represented as accidentals.

 

For more information, read [[Mike Battaglia]]'s [https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TUNING/conversations/topics/105842 KISS 2.0 Notation ].

 

This tutorial will use [[porcupine]][7] as the diatonic "white notes" within [[22-edo]].

 

First, I create 22-edo in [[Scala]]:

 

[[File:scala_make_scale.png|alt=scala make scale.png|scala make scale.png]]

 

(Or, you might use the console by typing

 

lineartemp

 

and following the prompts).

 

Then, "Save scale" to some easy-to-navigate-to location.

 

NOTE: Don't forget to enter a description. Some programs don't like empty lines in the .scl format.

 

Next, create a keyboard mapping file. This one has an important variable parameter. If your scale has more than, say, 22 notes, you may want to consider using multiple MIDI channels and multiple instances of the same VST and patch (see below), with each running a different keyboard mapping file. The number of octaves you'll get is 128/scalesize. For example, you'd only get 2.8 octaves of [[46edo]] per VST instance/MIDI channel.

 

Go to Edit &gt; Edit Mapping, and then<ul><li>Click the button "Get From Scale"</li><li>Set the note for 1/1 as desired.</li><li>If your tuning has many notes, AND you are using sampled sounds, set the Reference note HIGHER to improve the sound quality of bass instruments, or LOWER to improve the sound quality of treble instruments. May require experimentation for best results.</li><li>Click "Fill" on the right side.</li></ul>[[File:kbm_scala.png|alt=kbm scala.png|kbm scala.png]]

 

 

 

 

Choose File &gt; New Plugin and navigate to the .dll for your desired VST. Pianoteq by default installs to Program Files/Steinberg/VSTPlugins, for example.

 

 

Get your sound settings working in Devices &gt; Wave if needed Set up MIDI by choosing Devices &gt; MIDI and selecting LoopBe1 Internal.

 

 

 

 

 

[[File:vstbankwindow.png|alt=vstbankwindow.png|vstbankwindow.png]]</li></ol>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-size: 130%;">Don't forget to install the custom Accidental font as per Owain's tutorial above.</span>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midi/Audio &gt; Device Setup &gt; Midi Setup and then:

 

 

</li><li>You might have to have a "high" and "low" version of the same instrument in your score, if the tuning is large and you are using a VST that retunes samples, as explained above. Send each one along its own midi channel to a separate VST instance, configured to retune samples around the appropriate center note.</li><li>If you're really good, you've got a VST that just custom loads samples per MIDI note number, with each sample being hand crafted to verify pitch accuracy. That would be pro-mode for microtonal Finale.</li><li>If you're going to run a lot of instruments at once, you'll need a bunch of RAM (8+GB) and a bunch of cores (I'm doing fine with 4, but if you have a fast 8 core processor or better, you'll be able to polyphony out the wazoo)</li></ol>