List of music software
Audio workstation software (DAWs)
- See DAWs
Composing software
- alt-tuner microtuning plug-in, does adaptive tunings, on-the-fly retuning, and scale analysis.
- Csound (→ Csound and Wikipedia: Csound).
- blue – a composition environment and frontend for Csound with python-based scripting capabilities.
- microcsound – a Python-based front-end to Csound specifically geared to microtonal composition (tutorial).
- Rationale: A Just Intonation Sequencer – open-source software based on Csound and Python.
- Melodyne – commercial audio software with editing and analysis functions for scales and tunings.
- Microtonal-tuner - Wilckerson Ganda's tuner for all EDOs and EDONOIs (be sure to use https: not http:)
- Mutabor – open-source dynamic microtuner, allowing mutable and static scales and tunings using flexible language developed for musicians with GUI (tutorial).
- scalemap – drop-in microtonal note-to-frequency mapping for C, C++, and Javascript
- Schismata Musical composition tool in any user defined tuning. Supports polyrhythms, tuning changes in real-time, sliding notes, instrument design.
- SoundModeler Free sound modeling application. Exports audio files and Halion multisamples. The note pitch is transposed in accordance with chosen temperament (equal, Pythagorean, just or meantone 1/4 comma) in the settings.
- Terpstra Keyboard WebApp – cross-platform web app that allows mapping of any tuning (in Scala format) on any form of generalized hexagonal layout. Settings are stored in the address bar for easy sharing.
- TiMidity++ (→ Wikipedia: TiMidity++)
- Tonescape – music composition, analysis and educational tool.
- Tune Smithy
- Tuning Vine – an interface for just intonation, with a color-coded lattice.
- Xenpaper.com - A text-based microtonal sequencer, like a notepad. Write down musical ideas and share the link around
Desmos tools
- Basic waveforms - sine wave harmonics
- Cent error of 3 harmonics
- Cents to JI
- Commas generalized clean
- Compare harmonics to EDOs
- Octave harmonics proximity to EDO (circle)
- Octave intervals
- Patent val monzo mappings
- Pitch circle
- Rank 1 temperaments close to specific JI
- Temps within ED#
- Visualization of isomorphic key mappings
- What EDOs have generator sizes/interval ranges
- Zeta in Desmos
Software instruments
- AudioKit Synth One – a free iPad/iPhone touch-to-play app with customizable layout and scales, which can import scales directly from within Wilsonic.
- Chameleon – a customizable MIDI controller interface that can be used to create, among other things, virtual microtonal keyboards.
- Droneo – 8-voice polyphonic droning iPhone app, defines intervals in just ratios, equal divisions of an interval, or interactively with a tone spiral. Sounds nice, too.
- Dynamic Tonality – freely available dynamic tonality synthesizers and sequencers. (Wikipedia article on the dynamic tonality paradigm).
- Frequency Explorer – a browser-based synthesizer + sequencer with precisely-configurable musical scale and harmonic spectrum.
- GeoShred – an iPad/iPhone touch-to-play app with customizable layout and scales.
- Hexagonal Keyboard Demo- by Sjoerd Visscher
- Microtone[dead link] - A HTML5 uniform keyboard demo with any equal temperament
- Microtonal Fabric – web-browser based microtonal music platform, a framework for building universal or customized microtonal musical keyboard instruments, microtonal experiments and computing, music study, and teaching music lessons with possible remote options
- The Monochord[dead link] - Try out just intervals from a base frequency.
- Offtonic Microtonal Synthesizer – a JavaScript browser app that lets you play around with tunings.
- Orphion – an iPad/iPhone touch-to-play app with customizable layout and scales.
- Online 19-edo keyboard
- Online Terpstra keyboard (isomorphic hexagonal keyboard)
- Rational Keyboard - JI keyboard with keys that grow in size
- Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone – besides Live Coding, you can also record to WAV format, microtonal capabilities are provided through adding decimals to MIDI numbers.
- SunVox Modular Music Studio – a modular synthesizer with pattern-based sequencer (tracker), available for desktop (free of cost) and mobile devices (for approx. $6). Changing the musical scale in SunVox (video)
- ThumbJam – an iPad/iPhone touch-to-play app with customizable layout and scales. It can open any .scl (Scala) files.
- Wickisynth - tuning demo synthesizer with Wicki-Hayden key layout
- Xenharmonic Keyboard – a Windows-only isomorphic microtonal MIDI keyboard.
Mathematics software
- Continued Fraction Calculator
- Fast Decimal to Fraction Approximations
- Fraction Calculator — An Android app that User:PiotrGrochowski recommends to install. Allows to do arithmetic on fractions, while not outputting a mixed fraction.
- Fraction Expression Calculator - easily do ratio arithmetic
- Least Common Denominator of Fractions (LCD) Calculator - put your JI ratios in here!
- Number To Fractions — Finds fractions to a number that improve over the previous. Allows restricting to 3–limit, 5–limit, 7–limit, 11–limit or 13–limit. Type a number to be approximated by JI ratios, or the binary logarithm of a ratio to be approximated by edo intervals.
- Octave - a free, open source equivalent to MATLAB; useful for working with matrices and much more
- Online LaTeX Equation Editor - create mathematical expressions in LaTeX format for wiki pages etc.
- Wolfram Alpha - perform a variety of intensive mathematical calculations in your browser
Notation software
- abcm2ps Free, open-source, ASCII-based editor with support for some microtonal accidentals.
- Lilypond Free, open-source, outstanding notation software that produces beautiful engraving-quality output on a par with commercial applications like Sibelius. Thanks to the work of Graham Breed, can use Sagittal glyphs. With the Ekmelily extension, it can support several other notation styles, namely Tartini, Richter Herf/Madel and Sims.
- MaxScore is an Java object for Max/MSP. It is based on Nick Didkovsky's JMSL which natively supports quarter-tone notation, but is capable of playing back microtonal music with unlimited precision. In the most recent version of MaxScore, microMaps have been implemented in the score canvas that allow the display of microtonal inflections in any kind of notation system provided that a font exists to represent those inflections. So far, microMaps for 48TET and 72TET exist. It is planned to develop an standalone editor which doesn't require any Max programming expertise. For more information send an email to [email protected]
- Mus2 is a microtonal score editor with intonationally-correct playback. It allows the retuning of staves and import of symbols from graphics files and fonts to be used as accidentals.
- Dorico, expensive but a leading notation software with full support with the same method as Mus2 above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaadFpqm3-U
- MuseScore open-source notation software. Can be microtuned with the retuner plugin for almost any edo. The Xentuner plugin by Keenan Pepper is also very good. See MuseScore for the dedicated page.
Software plugins (VST etc.)
Programming
- See Programming
Tuning manipulation software
- Scala (→ Scala and Wikipedia: Scala (software)) - the de facto standard software for creating, manipulating and analyzing tunings
- instructions for Creating Scala scl files for rank two temperaments
- Scala Microtuners for Kontakt and SynthEdit which enable real-time scale or key change for an ensemble of soft synths by means of note events on designated midi channels
- alt-tuner - a tuning plug-in that does adaptive tunings, on-the-fly retuning, and scale analysis by Kite Giedraitis
- Fractal Tune Smithy & Bounce Metronome - by Robert Walker
- Scala to TUN and MTS online converter - by MicrotonalSoftware.com
- scalemap - drop-in microtonal note-to-frequency mapping functionality for C, C++, and Javascript
- Temperament Evaluator – FloraC wrote this set of Python scripts to compute TE tunings, badnesses, optimal patent vals, etc.
- Tonescape - Music composition, analysis and educational tool by Joe Monzo
- Wilsonic – an iPad/iPhone app for exploring alternative scales, see it in action: the source file 3 - YouTube
Tuning manipulation software (browser-based)
- Animated MOS ring demo
- Cents to Ratio Calculator - and much more! Also, another one with extensive instructions
- Diatonic Scale Explorer - Visualize the diatonic scale with different sizes of fifths
- edjiruler v0.0.1 - Visualize JI intervals close to equal divisions of whole numbers
- Harmonic Entropy Calculator - Interactive Harmonic Entropy curves.
- Interval calculator - a nice online interval calculator tool, shows linear fraction and EDO fraction expansions, too
- JI Scale Interval Calculator - Shows a list of all JI intervals in your JI scale
- Just Intonation -> EDO calculator
- Microtonal Software Scale Tree - ET Scale Tree Playground
- MOSedo - Moments of Symmetry in equal divisions of the octave calculator
- Music Calculators | Jeremiah Goyette (mostly set calculators)
- Online H-System Calculators - Hunt Intonation Quality Grade Point Average (IQGPA) Calculator
- Rank 2 Regular Temperament Generator - Scott Thompson's web app to generate rank 2 regular temperaments
- Scale Workshop Browser-based scale-creation site by Sevish. Allows playing via QWERTY computer keyboard. Can also export .scl and .kbm files.
- Selected just intervals by error
- Selected just intervals by error (MediaWiki output)
- Table of edo intervals
- Temperament finder - site by Graham Breed
- Tempered out comma finder
- Tempering out edo finder
- Tonespiral - Listen to harmonics visualized as a spiral
- Untwelve.org animated Javascript Moment of Symmetry (MOS) ring demo
- Xen-calc An interval calculator that translates to/from ratios, cents, FJS and color notation, much more too.