Creating Microtuning User Banks
XFM2 is a powerful tool for microtonal music creation. It features 256 different scales available at any time, and each program can use any scale (both units in XFM2 could be playing different scales simultaneously). The scales selected are recalled on Program Change, so changing scales during performance is snappy.
After many years of developing musical instruments with microtonal capabilities and microtuning, I’ve learned one fundamental fact: microtonal musicians do not limit themselves to any particular scale, or set of scales 🙂
So the 256 scales in the default factory pack have been picked by “popularity” (if that term means anything in the context of microtuning). But what about the other infinite number of scales that were not included, and microtonal musicians might want to use?
Here’s where Microtuning User Banks come to the rescue. XFM2 allows the user to upload her or his own microtuning scales to replace the factory ones.
Overall procedure
Essentially, the process consists of three steps:
1- Selecting the desired scales
2- Converting them into XFM2 format
3- Uploading to XFM2
#1 – Selecting/Creating the scales
Here’s where all your microtonal knowledge comes in.
XFM2 supports the de-facto standard Scala format which is the most extensive and powerful, freely available program for microtonal, intonation and alternate tuning scales research and creation. Scala is just fantastic and has been around for decades already (I recall I wrote my first Scala file parser in the early 00s).
Creating your own Scala definition file does not require the Scala program, btw. It can be typed in Notepad, and the process is super simple. Maybe I’ll write a small article on how to get started with that if you express any interest. Or in any case, you might find that someone already did the job you are after and that the scale you are after is already part of the ~5000 Scala files in stock available as a free download.
As said, XFM2’s microtuning processing is extensive: there’s no restriction on the number of notes per octave you can use, nor the constraint of having the concept of ‘octave’ at all. Each note in the MIDI range could be assigned to anything. The Scala format also supports the concept of “flexible keyboard mapping”, but as long as there’s a way to specify the center note and tuning that notion is largely redundant. In short, there’s simply no limitations to what can be achieved in regard to microtuning.
You need to create or select 256 scales and collect all those .scl files in a folder. The files will be uploaded in the same order they appear in your folder, so in order to sort them it helps to add a number prefix to each file (i.e. “Standard.scl” -> “000 – Standard.scl”). BTW, there’s no reason to have the first scale as the 12-tone standard tuning, but that’s the way it’s set in the factory bank and serves well as reference.
#2 – Converting to XFM2 format
Once you have the 256 .scl files (make sure you have that exact count), just extract the XScala conversion utility in the same folder, and run XScalaConvert.bat.
In a second or so, the script will convert all .scl files into binary (.bin), and then will stitch them together into a single composite file called tunings.bin. Also, it’ll create a log.txt file to conveniently keep a record of what’s in the file.
As mentioned above, the XScala utility allows to set any MIDI note as the scale center or reference point, with any specified tuning; just run XScala without any parameters for syntax details. But in general, that is not needed. XFM2 transpose and tune parameters will allow for keyboard shifting and retuning.
The tunings.bin file is then ready to upload.
#3 – Uploading to XFM2
The tunings are uploaded with our old friend XLoad. like the image, banks or programs. Syntax is:
XLoad <port> -t <file>
Here’s an example:
That’s it. Now you have a whole new set of microtuning scales installed in your XFM2, and there’s now essentially no limits on how many scales you can use in your music 🙂
Happy microtonalities!