Scala
Source: Hacker News
Scala
Scala is a powerful software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non‑Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale‑creation methods. Scala is ideal for exploring tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved. In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or music creation.
General Design
- Functions and operations are deliberately kept as general as possible.
- Commands accept a wide range of parameter values, often allowing multiple input forms.
- No arbitrary restrictions are imposed.
- Scales are stored in a flexible format.
- Intervals can be entered and saved as either ratios or cent values, and they may be intermixed within a single scale.
Constructing Scales
Building scales from scratch is one of Scala’s core strengths. The program can generate many kinds of scales, including:
- Equal temperaments
- Well‑temperaments
- Pythagorean (meantone) scales
- Euler‑Fokker genera
- Fokker periodicity blocks
- Harmonic scales
- Partch diamonds
- Polychordal scales
- Dwarf scales
- Wilson Combination Product Sets
Additional Tools
Scala includes a set of command files that can be used to build other kinds of scales, such as:
- Triadic scales
- Circular mirrorings
- Circulating temperaments
These command files also serve as practical examples for users exploring new tuning systems.