#oddsound

ODDSound Release MTS-ESP Suite for Dynamic Microtuning

UK STARTUP & APHEX TWIN REDEFINE MUSICAL TUNINGUK-based ODDSound’s collaboration with Grammy-winningelectronic artist Aphex Twin seeks toevolve a fundamental musical component - the note.

A new computer music technology,MTS-ESP, sets notescompletely free

.MTS-ESPchallenges the dominance of western tuning,giving global cultures tools tocompose in traditional local tunings whilst extendingthe possibilities for all.

MTS-ESPallows for fresh creative approaches to musicalcomposition, enabling electronicmusicians to define and change pitch at any momenteven whilst notes are playing.

Independent developers collaborate to empower musiciansto access alternative tunings.

           Until recently most music software only allowed working with the            same 12 notes, equally divided over an octave. Whilst microtuning additions have broadened this considerably, it can still be cumbersome to get all plugins and external synths in tune, until now...          

           The MTS-ESP Suite equips composers with tools to get everything            tuned quickly and accurately, as well as presenting entirely new compositional    methods.          

           Change notes or chords whilst they’re being played, transpose all           instruments at once or morph into an entirely different tuning system - the possibilities are endless. Discover more about tuning  and get detailed visual representations in real-time, or simply get everything tuned correctly in record time.          

The MTS-ESP Suite provides the computer musician with an intuitive toolset for rapidly composing and finessing microtonal pieces.Existing MIDI compositions can be easily converted to a different tuning system and given an entirely different emotional context. Working on new compositions is made nearly effortless.          

FEATURES:

Import and export .scl, .kbm and .tun tuning and mapping files

Create new tuning systems, manually and algorithmically

Control the tuning of your whole studio from within a single plugin

Retune any plugin or MIDI device with either MTS-ESP, MPE, MTS SysEx or MIDI pitch bend

Automate tuning changes across all plugins and MIDI devices

Visualize and compare tuning systems

Convert compositions from one tuning system to another

Create subset scales by analysing MIDI to only include used notes

Use a Novation Launchpad as a microtonal keyboard and chord player

Create tunings by ear and tune instruments with the built in synth

Zero-latency, low CPU use

Simple, ergonomic resizable interface

Mac Retina and Windows HiDPI support

Free, completely functional 30-day demo

When young we’re told that there are seven colors in the rainbow.  As we grow we realize that this isn’t true;the rainbow is a spectrum of color, a chromatic blur, and we’re completely used to visual artists utilising its variety.  In music we’re similarly told there are twelve equally spaced notes (12 Tones of Equal Temperament, or 12 TET for short).  Again, we grow to realize pitch is also a spectrum, yet this notion rarely extends to the music we listen to because the industry has been firmly rooted in those twelve notes...until now.  A collective of British musicians and software developers seek to challenge the tyranny of a de facto tuning system imposed on us all.

Although 12 TET has been a musical concept for millennia,its ubiquity is comparatively recent. Prior to mass manufacture of musical instruments the world was brimming with localized intonations,theories of tonality and tuning experimentation on the parts of composers.  12 TET enabled the industrialization of instrument manufacture through standardization, but the dawn of digital synthesizers in the 1980s ended the need for this conformity.  In theory a synthesizer could be tuned arbitrarily, so after lobbying from Robert Rich and Carter Scholzthe MIDI standard was extended to include specifications for changing tunings in 1992.Sadly that technology, known as MTS (MIDI Tuning Standard), never achieved broad adoption.

The constraints of 12 TET became increasingly apparent- pop hits often have similar melodies,leading to the all-too-common lawsuit and our ear shave grown so accustomed to this single tuningwe can find anything else discomforting (somethingTV and film composers have leveraged for decades now).  Young musicians marveling at world music such as Gamelan may wonder how such ethereal composition could be achieved, as often little is taught on the subject at western conservatoires or universities.  Musical commentators started to ask the obvious questions -have we run out of notes and is this dependency another vestige of western colonialism?

“It has been long evident that composers have been taxing both the system and its instruments far beyond their capacities, and that the continued tyranny of Equal Temperament is leading tothe degeneration of tonality...It would be health yfor us to realize fully that our instruments are exactly as poor as the system and habits of thoughtwith which they evolved.”Harry Partch

Many musical mavericks and global musicians already knew the answer - there’s a continuum of pitch, tonality is subjective and escaping the prison of those twelve notes can give music a whole new life.  To this end developers Damon Hancock and Dave Gamble (of UK audio brand DMGAudio) hatched a solution - an easy-to-use system unlocking the whole pitch spectrum.  It allows synthesizers to be tuned however one wishes and for tuning to be modified in real-time with no setup required.  MTS-ESP was born.

Tuning enthusiast Richard D James (Aphex Twin) showed them his vintage Rhodes Chroma synth with custom firmware that enabled him to author new tunings by ear and then transfer them to other instruments.  It was a laborious process, often taking hours to tune all the instruments on a recording,but it worked and was more musically intuitive than alternatives.  These ideas were consumed into the project and soon a holistic, centralized approach to tuning emerged.  EDM producer and coder OliCash (a.k.a. Far Too Loud) joined the team and a new company was formed, ODDSound, specifically targeting the boundaries of creative music technology.

There was one small problem left - whilst the system delivered solid results with existing hardware and software the perfect solution necessitated third-party developers to add code to their products.Adoption of new technologies in computer music hasoften been a slow process, spanning many years if not decades, so why would anyone integrate MTS-ESP prior to launch?  Richard, already friendly with numerous synth companies, offered hissupport to the project.  Now it has been openedup for anyone to use, with freely available code for developers and free software for users.  MTS-ESP now enjoys one of the broadest adoptions on launch of any computer music technology in history, aswell as a zero-cost entry point for everyone via the MTS-ESP Mini plugin paired with free softwareinstruments.

"You now have63,050,394,783,186,944-128 more frequencies to play with" Richard D James

A plethora of compatible software, some free and some commercial, is available now from forward-thinking developers including : Audio Damage, Audiorealism, CWITec, DMGAudio , Expert Sleepers, HY Plugins, Modartt, Surge, Soundyan, TAL, U-He, Xfer Records,

More are joining weekly and the possibilities for tuning don't end there either. The full MIDI Tuning Standard, mentioned earlier, is resurgent on modern hardware synths, notably those from Moog, Waldorf and Novation, offering a way to control the tuning of individual notes from the system.  Expert Sleepers provide a way to retune analogue and Modular synths using Control Voltage (CV) with MTS-ESP integration in their “Silent Way” plugins.MTS-ESP can also be used for tuning in the virtual modular VCVRack and MAX/MSP visual programming environments via free modules provided by ODDSound.

The launch  of the MTS-ESP ecosystem is a huge leap forward for electronic music creators that utilise the infinitude of alternatives to 12 TET.Veering from tuning norms has been costly,time-consuming and frustrating until now, but this technology remedies the issues whilst empowering users to explore a universe of approaches to tuning.Now independent developers have united to push music technology forwards perhaps we will see more such projects to come.

The ODDSound MTS-ESP Suite is available now at oddsound.com for £79.99 (GBP).

The ODDSound MTS Mini plugin is available now at oddsound.com for free