Maeve Gutierrez
Maeve Gutierrez is a producer of microtonal hyperpop, ambient and other experimental electronic music. In her music, she has explored 27edo, 31edo and various just intonation scales among other tunings. She is also a music theorist who extensively uses Scale Workshop.
Discography and socials
Invented scales and chords (named)
6ed7/3+7edo scale
Gutierrez Moonglade scale
In a public post on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server, in September 2025, Gutierrez described the 24-tone scale she used in her piece 'Moonglade'.
This was the post:
"
i would like to share a custom scale i made (& used in my song "moonglade" which is on all distrokid-supported streaming platforms, in the ep "luna" by maeve gutierrez (me)). i focused mainly on shimmery intervals/textures like wolf tones and commas, but also included some pure/JI consonances & there is also plenty of dissonance/tension available
alot of the intervals also exist between intervals: flat whole tone is a -14 comma lower than the whole tone, the harmonic major chord triad (+0,+386,+969) has a natural +583 tritone between the 3rd and 7th, etc!
obviously if anyone wants 2 use it u can!! i dont own the intervals!!! its a fun scale to play with for harmony/thick chords
(moonglade is a very old word that means the moonlight shining on oceans, lakes etc)
"
Intervals
This is the scale in cents:
- 14.
- 88.
- 187.
- 201.
- 289.
- 311.
- 386.
- 498.
- 520.
- 583.
- 680.
- 702.
- 716.
- 787.
- 867.
- 884.
- 969.
- 991.
- 1013.
- 1066.
- 1076.
- 1102.
- 1178.
- 1200.
Theory
Edos that approximate the Moonglade scale especially well for their size include:
Detempering in 19-limit just intonation:
- 121/120 — 20/19 — 10/9 — 9/8 — 13/11 — 6/5 — 5/4 — 4/3 — 23/17 — 7/5 — 40/27 — 3/2 — 50/33 — 11/7 — 33/20 — 5/3 — 7/4 — 23/13 — 9/5 — 224/121 — 13/7 — 17/9 — 65/33 — 2/1
- (identical to original scale within 5 ¢)
When tempered to 72edo, the step pattern for the Moonglade scale is:
- 1 4 6 1 5 2 4 7 1 4 6 1 1 4 5 1 5 1 2 3 1 1 5 1
- (identical to original scale within 8 ¢)
When tempered to 270edo, the step pattern for the Moonglade scale is:
- 3 17 22 3 20 5 17 25 5 14 22 5 3 16 18 4 19 5 5 12 2 6 17 5
- (identical to original scale within 1 ¢)
Gutierrez sunbreak scale
This is a JI chord which can also be used as a pentatonic scale. Gutierrez first described it on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server in October 2025, where she described it as a "very bright minor, like the sun coming out after a storm". Its intervals are:
- 20/17
- 25/17
- 11/7
- 16/9
- 2/1
It is a 17-limit scale.
Budjarn Lambeth then noted that, if used as a scale, it works very well with many of the aperiodic timbres in Scale Workshop (jegogan, jublag, ugal, gender, bronze, steel, silver and platinum). He described it as sounding like "a coral reef full of sea shells and whimsical little sea creatures" and provided this Scale Workshop preset for it.
According to Lambeth, sunbreak also sounds good tuned to 34edo or 95edo when using these kinds of timbres.
Lambeth's variants
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This article or section contains multiple idiosyncratic terms. Such terms are used by only a few people and are not regularly used within the community. |
Later in October 2025, Budjarn Lambeth created these variants of the sunbreak scale.
- Negative harmony sunbreak
- (5-tone)
- 9/8 — 14/11 — 34/25 — 17/10 — 2/1
- Mirrored sunbreak
Negative harmony sunbreak + original sunbreak.
- (9-tone)
- 9/8 — 20/17 — 14/11 — 34/25 — 25/17 — 11/7 — 17/10 — 16/9 — 2/1
- Chromaticized sunbreak
Mirrored sunbreak + 3 intervals found between the intervals of original sunbreak.
- (12-tone)
- 187/175 - 9/8 — 20/17 — 14/11 — 34/25 — 25/17 — 280/187 - 11/7 — 17/10 — 16/9 — 350/187 - 2/1
- Fractalized sunbreak
Every mode (rotation) of original sunbreak, overlayed onto one scale.
- (21-tone)
- 187/175 — 9/8 — 112/99 — 20/17 — 272/225 — 5/4 — 14/11 — 45/34 — 187/140 — 34/25 — 25/17 — 280/187 — 68/45 — 11/7 — 8/5 — 225/136 — 17/10 — 99/56 — 16/9 — 350/187 — 2/1
Gutierrez wisp scale
This 8-tone scale was described by Gutierrez in October 2025, on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server. In cents, its intervals are:
- 266.87
- 484.92
- 669.28
- 936.15
- 1154.20
- 1338.56
- 1466.87
- 1698.05
Gutierrez recommends using the wisp scale with custom timbres, where some instruments have a 'stretched harmonic series' of partials stretched such that 2/1 becomes 7/3, and other instruments with partials stretched such that 2/1 becomes 8/3. This is an example of xentimbre.
Construction
If you start with the JI chord:
- 1/1 — 5/4 — 3/2 — 7/4
Then compress it logarithmically such that 5/4 becomes 7/6, you get the delta-rational chord:
- 0¢ — 266.9¢ — 484.9¢ — 669.3¢
If you stack a second copy of the same chord on top of itself you get the scale:
- 266.87
- 484.92
- 669.28
- 936.15
- 1154.20
- 1338.56
Then you can add a 7/3 and 8/3 to the end and you get Gutierrez's scale.
Theory
The wisp scale closely approximates the JI chord
- 42:49:56:62:72:82:91:98:112
Which occurs above the tonic in 42afdo, the second octave of the over-7-and-3 semiprime mode in primodality theory - it also occurs (somewhere in the scale) in all afdos above 42.
JI intervals approximated by the wisp scale:
- 266.87 (7/6)
- 484.92 (4/3)
- 669.28
- 936.15 (12/7)
- 1154.20
- 1338.56 (13/6)
- 1466.87 (7/3)
- 1698.05 (8/3)
EDOs that approximate the wisp scale better than any smaller EDO include: 27, 45, 49, 50, 72, 77, 104, 181...
As absolute steps of 27edo it is:
- 6\27, 11\27, 15\27, 21\27, 26\27, 30\27, 33\27, 38\27
38\27 being a period after which the scale repeats.
Invented scales and chords (unnamed)
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This article or section contains multiple idiosyncratic terms. Such terms are used by only a few people and are not regularly used within the community.
Terms: Names of scales made up by Budjarn Lambeth for the purpose of documentation; if Gutierrez names the scales at some point, Gutierrez's names should be used instead. |
Gutierrez 11/1-period heptachord
In a public post on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server, in September 2025, Gutierrez described the following nonoctave, 7-tone just intonation chord:
- 11/9 — 19/7 — 3/1 — 19/4 — 7/1 — 9/1 — 11/1
It is a 19-limit chord.
Budjarn Lambeth was inspired by this chord to create the moon dust scale, in which Gutierrez's chord and subsets thereof is the most foundational consonance.
EDOs that approximate the chord well for their size include:
EDTs that approximate the chord better than any smaller EDT include:
65edt also includes the Bohlen-Pierce scale allowing this chord to be used above any degree of that scale.
The chord is closely approximated in 63afdo, as the JI chord:
- 63:77:171:189:299:441:567:693
Gutierrez 7/6s-and-4/3s scale
In a public post on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server, in October 2025, Gutierrez described the 8-tone JI scale:
- 28/27 — 7/6 — 4/3 — 112/81 — 14/9 — 392/243 — 16/9 — 2/1
It is a 7-limit scale.
She recommended tempering it to 36edo, where it has step pattern:
- 2 6 7 2 6 2 5 6
It contains within it a 2-tone, 4/3-repeating scale which Gutierrez recommends using as either a JI chord or as a scale in its own right.:
- 7/6 — 4/3
EDOs that approximate the 7/6s-and-4/3s scale well for their size include:
EDOs that approximate it better than any smaller EDO include:
It is closely approximated in 54afdo, by the JI chord:
- 54:56:63:72:75:84:87:96:108
Gutierrez-Lambeth quasi-subharmonic pentatonic
In a public post on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server, in September 2025, Gutierrez described the 4-tone JI chord 7/6 - 40/27 - 11/5 - 7/2.
In a reply, Budjarn Lambeth noted that the shape of the step pattern looked like the subharmonic series, and adding a 6/1 would preserve this shape.
Gutierrez thought the 6/1 was a good addition and resolved to use this scale/chord in a future piece.
Its intervals are:
- 7/6
- 40/27
- 11/5
- 7/2
- 6/1
It is an 11-limit scale.
Ed6s with especially good approximations of this scale for their size are:
Edos with especially good approximations of this scale for their size are:
It is closely approximated in 60afdo, by the JI chord:
- 60:70:89:132:210:360
Octave-reduced variant
This works well in the same edos the regular scale does. You can choose to keep or leave the 3/2 (reduced 6/1):
- 11/10
- 7/6
- 40/27
- 3/2 (optional)
- 7/4
- 2/1
When tempered to 37edo, the step pattern for the reduced scale is:
- 5 3 13 9 7
- (identical to original scale within 7.5 ¢)
When tempered to 58edo, the step pattern for the reduced scale is:
- 8 5 20 14 11
- (identical to original scale within 4 ¢)
When tempered to 67edo, the step pattern for the reduced scale is:
- 9 6 23 16 13
- (identical to original scale within 4 ¢)
When tempered to 72edo, the step pattern for the reduced scale is:
- 10 6 25 17 14
- (identical to original scale within 3 ¢)
When tempered to 270edo, the step pattern for the reduced scale is:
- 37 23 93 65 52
- (identical to original scale within 0.6 ¢)
Other discoveries
- October 2025
Gutierrez was the first to explore 13ed8/3 as a possible tuning, describing its uses on the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server.
Recommendations
If a composer likes Gutierrez's original scales, they may also like scales by other theorists which Gutierrez has recommended using. These are some examples of those:
If you take all the intervals of 3ed7/3 up to its sharp tritave and octave-reduce them, you get a scale almost exactly the same (within 0.25 ¢) as the superpyth[5] MOS scale in 27edo. This scale sounds somewhere in between 12edo pentatonic and 5edo equipentatonic.
- Step pattern: 6 5 6 5 5
If you take two copies of 5edo and offset them from each other by 27 ¢, you get a scale almost exactly the same (within 0.34 ¢) by the cloudtone[10] MOS scale in 45edo. This scale is good for dual-fifth usage.
- Step pattern: 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1