Microtonally Retunable Synthesizers, Samplers and other Instruments

Li’l Miss’ Scale Oven (LMSO) runs on the Mac. LMSO tunes more instruments than any other software in the world. This includes pro Yamaha, Ensoniq, Marion, E-mu and all MIDI Tuning Standard compatible synths. Also supports the lightweight 12 note scales of the Roland GS and Yamaha GX instruments. Also can retune large numbers of softsynths. Support includes all of the following instruments, with support for new instruments added all the time:

• Yamaha DX7 w/E! — 12-bit 16 voice 6-operator FM, 16 full-keyboard tunings.
• Yamaha DX7S, DX7IID, DX7IIFD — 16-bit 16 voice 6-op FM, 2 full-keyboard tunings (66 total with cartridge).
• Yamaha TX802 — 8-way multitimbral version of the DX7II in a rack module. Popular among microtonalists.
• Yamaha DX11 — 4-op FM synth. 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• Yamaha TX81Z — 8-way multitimbral version of the DX11 in a rack module.
• Yamaha V50 — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• Yamaha SY77 — 16-64 voice, 16 part multitimbral hybrid FM + AWM synth with effects, resonant filters, and 2 full-keyboard tunings (66 total with cartridge).
• Yamaha TG77 — SY77 in a rack module.
• Yamaha SY99 — SY77 with 76-key (6 octave) keyboard and sampling.
• Yamaha VL1 — 2-voice physical modelling instrument. 2 full-keyboard tunings.
• Yamaha VL7 — monophonic physical modelling instrument. 2 full-keyboard tunings.
• Yamaha VL1-m — monophonic physical modelling instrument. 12 note octave repeating scale only in basic tuning format. Fortunately, LMSO 2.0 can get around this limitation and enable arbitrary full keyboard scales.
• Korg Z1 — 1 octave tuning, 1 stretched octave tuning
• Korg Prophecy — Monophonic version of the Z1. 1 octave tuning, 1 stretched octave tuning
• Native Instruments FM7 Soft Synthesizer — Compatible with all Yamaha FM instruments before the SY series (DX7, DX7-II, DX11, TX81Z, TX7, DX21, DX27, DX100, TX802), but extends their features with resonant filters and a modulation matrix. Full keyboard retuning reception via sysex was added in version 1.1 (6/23/2002). Note that full-keyboard arbitrary retuning was not part of the free FM7 demo version 1.01. Unfortunately, FM7 reception of tuning data in real-time only works when run in standalone mode and Native Instruments as of 2006 has not fixed this. Full keyboard tunings can be loaded directly from files into the FM7 whether in standalone mode or as a VST or AU or other plugin. The FM7 is supported in OSX, with VST, TDM, and AU plugin standards so it runs in OS X with any pro sequencer. It’s one of the few softsynths that is able to receive tuning changes via standard sysex in real time. (LMSO’s built in Cupcake synth is another one.) (7/2008) The FM8’s tuning full keyboard tuning implementation is reportedly broken in the FM8, and remains unfixed after two years of complaints by owners. As thrilled as I was about the FM7, I can not recommend the FM8 as enthusiastically, until the tuning problems are fixed. The FM8 does have the same built in 12 note scale editor as the FM7 though, which is a rare feature in a soft synth, so it could still be useful depending on your needs.
• Native Instruments Pro53 Soft Synthesizer — This software emulation is an expanded version of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 polyphonic analogue synthesizer, which was the first synthesizer ever to have a MIDI port and was a very enjoyable vintage instrument. This instrument has support for 12 note tunings loaded in via a special file format, which LMSO supports. In addition to this, as with many 12 note retunable instruments, LMSO can circumvent the 12 note limitations of the Pro53 and trick it into tuning both arbitrary full-keyboard and nonoctave scales.
  Registered Pro52 users can upgrade to the Pro53 here.
• Synthogy Ivory 1.71 — Piano Sampler Plugin which supports MIDI Tuning Standard sysex.
• Ensoniq EPS — 12-bit sampler with one full-keyboard tuning.
• Ensoniq EPS+ — 16-bit version of the EPS.
• Ensoniq ASR-10 — the last full-keyboard retunable sampler made. Popular among microtonalists.
• Ensoniq ASR-88 — 88 key version of the ASR-10.
• Ensoniq TS-10 — Limited, non-sampling derivative of the ASR-10. Polyphonic aftertouch.
• Ensoniq TS-12 — TS-10 with no polyphonic aftertouch but a 76-key weighted keyboard instead.
• Ensoniq ASR-X — a retunable drum machine (let me know if I should say more about this — seems to be popular)
• Ensoniq ASR-X Pro
• Ensoniq MR Rack
• Ensoniq MR-61
• Ensoniq MR-76
• Ensoniq ZR-76
• Ensoniq VFX, VFX SD
— wave frame scanning synthesizer workstation with polyphonic aftertouch. 1 full keyboard global tuning, plus one tuning per patch.
• Ensoniq SD-1, SD-1 32 Voice
• Turtle Beach Maui — soundcard (These Turtle Beach soundcards did not have Mac drivers; but they accept MIDI Tuning Standard messages which LMSO supports and many LMSO users report that they have both a PC and a Mac and use both together for music.)
• Turtle Beach Tropez — soundcard
• Turtle Beach Tropez +PnP — soundcard
• Turtle Beach Maui — soundcard
• Turtle Beach Rio — soundcard
• Marion Prosynth — Tom Oberheim’s last synth and the only MIDI retunable true analog synth ever built. 4 full-keyboard tunings with very fine pitch resolution. Rare. If you don’t want yours, send it to me! :-)
• Marion MSR-2 — 4 full-keyboard tunings.
• E-mu Proteus/1, Proteus/1 XR — This particular sample-playback module has sounds some owners say they grow tired of.
• E-mu Proteus/2, Proteus/2 XR — Orchestral version of the /1
• E-mu Proteus/3 — World music version of the /1 + revised OS. Robert Rich worked on this instrument’s sound set. 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Proteus FX — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Classic Keys — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Vintage Keys — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Morpheus — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Ultra Proteus — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Orbit — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Orbit V2 — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Planet Phatt — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Carnaval — 1 full-keyboard tuning.
• E-mu Proteus 2000 — Instruments in this series (the next 7 listed) are sound modules with large preset sample libraries, exotic filters, and 12 full-keyboard tunings.
• E-mu Virtuoso 2000
• E-mu Audity 2000
• E-mu B3
• E-mu Xtreme Lead-1
• E-mu Planet Earth
• E-mu Mo'Phatt
• E-mu Vintage Pro
• E-mu Proteus 1000 — 12 tunings
• E-mu Proteus 2500 — 12 tunings
• E-mu MP-7 — 12 tunings
• E-mu XL-7 — ”
• E-mu PK-6 — 12 tunings
• E-mu XK-6 — ”
• E-mu MK-6 — ”
• E-mu Halo — ”
• MOTM-650 4-Channel MIDI-CV converter — yep, at last there is a full-featured microtonal MIDI interface for antique modular analog synthesizers.
• Roland GS/JV/XP instruments — 16 tunings, but the GS protocol allows 12 note octave repeating scales only. The GS protocol is used in most all modern Roland instruments, such as the recent JV series instruments. Check for GS compatibility.
• Yamaha GX instruments — 16 tunings, but the GX protocol allows 12 note octave repeating scales only. This GX protocol is present in many modern Yamaha instruments, including most Clavinovas. Check for GX compatibility.
• Waldorf Microwave 1 (µWave) — wavetable slice scanning synth with 4 full-keyboard tunings: 2 in the instrument, 2 on an optional RAM card.

...and all instruments that understand the versatile MIDI Tuning Standard (MTS). Historically, the MIDI Tuning Standard (which was designed by microtonal composers Robert Rich and Carter Scholz) has been the most widely supported MIDI system exclusive tuning format which supports full keyboard tunings, and one of the only formats that supports single-note retuning, which is the key to unlimited pitch sets. MTS also has a very precise 0.006 cent tuning resolution.

Unless otherwise noted, all the synths mentioned are models which support full-keyboard retuning with no limitations like 12-note scales only or octave tunings only. If you are in the market for a retunable synth, I strongly recommend you make absolutely sure it allows for full-keyboard arbitrary retuning. Make sure that each note can be tuned to anything you like and not just +/- 50 cents from 12 tone. You may not think you need it, but it is likely the day will come when you do — even if all you want to do is tune up a piano patch to an authentic stretched piano tuning.

If you’re not sure if a synth you have is appropriately retunable, just ask me, I’d be happy to research the instrument and comment on it for you.

In addition to support for standalone instruments, LMSO also supports output for a number of software and soundcard synthesizers that have their own special text files they need, such as:

• LinPlug CronoX 2 & 3 — 24 voice sampler/analog emulator with resonant filters and modulation matrix. OS X and PC only. LMSO can create the .tun tuning files needed by the LinPlug CronoX 2 and 3.
• LinPlug Albino 2.0 — Analog softsynth with arpeggiator.
• LinPlug Alpha — Analog softsynth.
• LinPlug Organ 3 — Hammond B3 emulation.
• Spectrasonics Omnisphere — 8 part multitimbral multiparadigm synth.
• u-he Zebra 2.1 — Analog softsynth.
• u-he ACE — Any Cable Everywhere modular synth.
• Virsyn Cube 1.5 — Vector synthesizer with additive synthesis features. Each of the 8 parts can be separately tuned.
• Virsyn Tera 2 — Modular synthesizer with six types of synthesis, including spectral synthesis and physical modelling.
• Camel Audio Cameleon 5000 1.3 — Additive synthesizer with analysis/resynthesis. Up to 64 bands and 128 slice points, both frequency and amplitude of slices are editable at each slice point. Each patch has four additive synths that are vector modulated between using a 2D envelope. 128 note arbitrary full tuning savable per patch. If you are wrestling with the mysteries of matching timbre partials to a tuning to explore in fine detail the interaction between tuning and timbre, this synth makes it possible without resorting to writing your own synths in csound or matlab, like some of the pioneers in timbre/tuning have done. Full featured additive synthesis requires a pretty fast computer.
• Camel Audio Alchemy — sample manipulation synth with additive synthesis.
• BitHeadz Unity — Sampler that can import a wide variety of sampler formats.
• Korg Oasys PCI soundcard — LMSO supports the special tuning file format used by the Oasys.
• Steinberg HALion & HALionOne sampler & sample preset player — LMSO supports Cubase’s Micro Tuner plugin which retunes these instruments and a few others. (12 note scales only)
• VAZ 2000 and family plugin synths — most so far are PC only. LMSO supports their text tuning format.
• Metasynth™ by UI — not a ordinary synth but a sample-editor with extensive analysis and resynthesis capabilities. Scales can be loaded to specify the partials for resynthesis. By combining LMSO with Metasynth, you can intimately specify the exact tuning of every overtone used by your sounds, and even extract scales from sound timbres to be used in your synthesizers. I can’t begin to express how amazing these possibilities are.

LMSO provides custom and unique retuning support for these instruments:

• Logic EXS24 sampler — LMSO can directly microtune EXS24 patches.
• NI Absynth™ 2 and up — LMSO creates the custom full-keyboard tuning table files which Absynth 2 uses.
• NI Kontakt™ 2 and up — LMSO writes custom tuning plugins for K2, enabling banks of full, arbitrary tunings that can even be modulated through in real-time using selectable MIDI controllers, with visual feedback (wow!). Fantastic for live performance, scale morphing, modulation schemes, and so forth. (Kontakt 1.5 is also supported for retuning and live scale changes using LMSO’s Nuscale dynamic retuning module.)
• NI Reaktor™ — LMSO creates full-keyboard arbitrary tuning tables for Native Instruments’ Reaktor™. Includes support for multi-tuning banks, enabling live changing and morphing of scales during a performance. Yikes, this is powerful stuff: Watch out now!
• Max/MSP™ and Pluggo™ — LMSO supports “SuperMunchy”, the mind-blowing gizmo that supernaturally enables you to transparently and easily retrofit your Max/MSP and Pluggo™ soft-synthesizers to support any desired tuning created with LMSO. LMSO also supports Max collections objects, which are another approach to tuning instruments in Max.
• Pure Data — LMSO generates files that can be used to tune this object-oriented graphical musical instrument design language.
• Reason NN-XT sampler — LMSO can directly retune the NN-XT sampler’s patches.
• Symbolic Sound Kyma — LMSO supports Kyma tuning files.
• TimewARP2600 — LMSO generates new tuning presets for this ARP 2600 emulator.

If you don’t see your retunable instrument listed, don’t give up just yet! Contact me instead and I will be happy to research it for you. Many times, I have been able to work with the customer to add new formats to the program in the time it takes for payment to be received. And of course all current owners can request new formats be added as well as they acquire new instruments.

We are still not done yet. LMSO’s amazingly powerful and versatile Nuscale dynamic retuning module allows you to do full keyboard retuning of almost all MIDI synthesizers currently in production, as well as most MIDI synthesizers that have ever been made. This includes many that theoretically cannot be retuned. Now they can be tuned, as the impossible becomes possible. Thus you can retune your Kurzweil K2000 synth to full keyboard nonoctave tunings, or reverse tunings, or whatever you like, not constrained to the limitations of octave tunings that the instrument would seem to have. You can retune your antique Prophet VS, your Roland XV5050, your D-50, your Waldorf MicroQ. With LMSO’s Nuscale, all of these support extended just intonation, expressive playing of various ethnic instrument playing styles, intuitive tuning and intonational adjustments of the instrument by ear, as is practiced in some world musics, and the instantaneous switching between various tunings even during live performance, with no latency or glitching between changes. LMSO can do all this simultaneously for as many instruments as you wish. It is not limited to only retuning one instrument at a time.

As you would expect, Nuscale has complete support for the MIDI Tuning Standard protocol, including the very rarely seen single-note-tuning protocol. This means you can use Nuscale to retrofit most of the instruments you have to be fully compatible with MIDI Tuning Standard reception. So if you want to write a composition with an unlimited number of pitches using synths you may already have, LMSO’s Nuscale can help you accomplish that.

Nuscale enables you to retune hardware and software instruments such as the following:

• Propellerhead Reason
• Ableton Live’s Operator, Simpler and Tension
• Modartt Pianoteq — physically modelled piano, version 3.6.1 and up (recommended)
• GForce impOSCar — hybrid analog filter/digital wavetable synth emulator (version 1 is recommended, but version 2 should be avoided as the unique ease of retunability that made imOSCar a microtonal treasure was broken in the upgrade)
• Sequential Prophet VS
• Current Yamaha Portatone keyboards
• Native Instruments Kontakt™
• Tascam Gigastudio — Strange to see this popular PC-only soft sampler here, but several LMSO users have reported running this sampler on their PC, creating a sort of ad hoc hardware instrument, while retuning it with LMSO running on their Mac. (If you are in the market for a sampler, Kontakt is probably now the most popular and versatile one, but I mention this here to give an idea of the versatility and possibilities of what people are doing with LMSO.)
• Yamaha CLP 230/240
• Yamaha Motif Rack ES
• Korg Triton Studio Workstation, as well as other Triton models
• Kurzweil K2000 and up
• Dave Smith Instruments (DSI) Tetra
• Waldorf Blofeld
• ...and countless others. These listings are just a taste, the complete list is nearly unlimited since the number of MIDI instruments that can’t be retuned is much smaller than those which can.

Not everything in the world can be retuned by LMSO yet but we’d sure like to make it that way!

Should I watch out for anything then?

The above is a just a list of a few instruments that can be retuned and not a list of recommendations or comprehensive catalog of tuning features. Because the list was started many years ago, much of the list is older instruments that had sysex support for built in tuning tables, something that contemporary instruments have unfortunately moved away from. We strongly recommend to manufacturers that all new instruments support the MIDI Tuning Standard sysex format, and at a minimum have one global full keyboard tuning table. This is greatly preferable to a small set of 12 tone octave repeating scale presets.

It’s impossible for this to be a comprehensive list of tuning capabilities, or even a small fraction of that. However, in the hardware category one class of instruments that I am aware many people have been disappointed with tuning-wise is Stage and Console Pianos and Organs. Many of these (but not all) can not be easily retuned other than by sampling them and retuning the samples. Thus one should proceed especially carefully in this particular category.

In general the best bet is to always test in advance for retunability and what limits are present. Several hardware synthesizers list tuning tables among their features but these are only certain scales, or editing of tunings is limited to 12 note octave repeating scales. Paradoxically, other instruments that list no tuning features are often more retunable.