New Persian Scale Microtonal Piece

Share and discuss your LMMS music projects here, and see what people think!
https://youtu.be/Y0BP8ji0B5k

Still limited to just using one instrument, but I've added some drums and samples. I was talking a while back about how much I like Arabic music, and it was really cool to discover Iranian/Persian classical music and I even found a paper talking about the scales. Let me know what you think!

Based on the work of Safi al-Din: http://www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/T ... _Music.pdf
I really like it, it's relaxing and sounds a bit "mysterious". The drums also suit the song. I think you've nailed the feel of Persian music.

However, lets try to fix that one instrument thing. For me exporting tracks with Zynaddsubfx with microtonal data works no problemo. I have Linux Mint Mate 19.1 (newly installed) as well as LMMS 1.2.0-rc8 appimage. What system are you using?

I just create the Scala files, open them in Zynaddsubfx and the pitches are readjusted in the LMMS piano roll (and also when exporting). I don't need to use Carla or anything.
Rakso wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:18 pm
I really like it, it's relaxing and sounds a bit "mysterious". The drums also suit the song. I think you've nailed the feel of Persian music.

However, lets try to fix that one instrument thing. For me exporting tracks with Zynaddsubfx with microtonal data works no problemo. I have Linux Mint Mate 19.1 (newly installed) as well as LMMS 1.2.0-rc8 appimage. What system are you using?

I just create the Scala files, open them in Zynaddsubfx and the pitches are readjusted in the LMMS piano roll (and also when exporting). I don't need to use Carla or anything.
I've been writing out the scales by hand, I think lmms has trouble processing/extrapolating the scale without having a scala file to load and that's why it's been detuning when I export it. It works fine when I use scala files even for multiple instruments. Thank you.
Nice work. I like the flavor added by the microtonal inflections - I'm no expert on Persian music but there is certainly an exotic middle-east feel going on here. Keep it up!

If you're interested, here's a bunch of approaches to middle easter / maqam scales, some traditional and some maybe a bit more experimental interpretations:
https://en.xen.wiki/w/Arabic,_Turkish,_Persian
fatraccoons wrote:
Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:35 pm
Rakso wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:18 pm
I really like it, it's relaxing and sounds a bit "mysterious". The drums also suit the song. I think you've nailed the feel of Persian music.

However, lets try to fix that one instrument thing. For me exporting tracks with Zynaddsubfx with microtonal data works no problemo. I have Linux Mint Mate 19.1 (newly installed) as well as LMMS 1.2.0-rc8 appimage. What system are you using?

I just create the Scala files, open them in Zynaddsubfx and the pitches are readjusted in the LMMS piano roll (and also when exporting). I don't need to use Carla or anything.
I've been writing out the scales by hand, I think lmms has trouble processing/extrapolating the scale without having a scala file to load and that's why it's been detuning when I export it. It works fine when I use scala files even for multiple instruments. Thank you.
Ok! It's actually pretty easy to make a Scala file. If you have been writing scales by hand, you just need to add a title to the first line and number of notes to the second line, and save your text as a .scl file.

Here are the scala file specifications: http://huygens-fokker.org/scala/scl_format.html

I actually have a very simple Python script that I use to generate the text that I can save as a scl file (it generates text after I input number of notes and interval to divide). I can share it with you if you feel like you need it.

Of course, the best way is probably to download the Scala software but I had trouble installing it on Linux.
You should try out Sevish's "Scale Workshop" site. It's another good alternative for creating .scl files, and you don't need to install anything. It also has a web synth to try out scales on the qwerty keyboard.
http://sevish.com/scaleworkshop/
Rakso wrote:
Sun Apr 21, 2019 2:39 pm
fatraccoons wrote:
Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:35 pm
Rakso wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:18 pm
I really like it, it's relaxing and sounds a bit "mysterious". The drums also suit the song. I think you've nailed the feel of Persian music.

However, lets try to fix that one instrument thing. For me exporting tracks with Zynaddsubfx with microtonal data works no problemo. I have Linux Mint Mate 19.1 (newly installed) as well as LMMS 1.2.0-rc8 appimage. What system are you using?

I just create the Scala files, open them in Zynaddsubfx and the pitches are readjusted in the LMMS piano roll (and also when exporting). I don't need to use Carla or anything.
I've been writing out the scales by hand, I think lmms has trouble processing/extrapolating the scale without having a scala file to load and that's why it's been detuning when I export it. It works fine when I use scala files even for multiple instruments. Thank you.
Ok! It's actually pretty easy to make a Scala file. If you have been writing scales by hand, you just need to add a title to the first line and number of notes to the second line, and save your text as a .scl file.

Here are the scala file specifications: http://huygens-fokker.org/scala/scl_format.html

I actually have a very simple Python script that I use to generate the text that I can save as a scl file (it generates text after I input number of notes and interval to divide). I can share it with you if you feel like you need it.

Of course, the best way is probably to download the Scala software but I had trouble installing it on Linux.
Thank you so much guys! I would like to see that python script, it hasn't been able to read the .scl files I make in Sublime.
fatraccoons wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:38 pm
Rakso wrote:
Sun Apr 21, 2019 2:39 pm
fatraccoons wrote:
Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:35 pm


I've been writing out the scales by hand, I think lmms has trouble processing/extrapolating the scale without having a scala file to load and that's why it's been detuning when I export it. It works fine when I use scala files even for multiple instruments. Thank you.
Ok! It's actually pretty easy to make a Scala file. If you have been writing scales by hand, you just need to add a title to the first line and number of notes to the second line, and save your text as a .scl file.

Here are the scala file specifications: http://huygens-fokker.org/scala/scl_format.html

I actually have a very simple Python script that I use to generate the text that I can save as a scl file (it generates text after I input number of notes and interval to divide). I can share it with you if you feel like you need it.

Of course, the best way is probably to download the Scala software but I had trouble installing it on Linux.
Thank you so much guys! I would like to see that python script, it hasn't been able to read the .scl files I make in Sublime.
As 18musicians rightly pointed out (which I forgot about) Sevish released the awesome Scale workshop website which has great functionality. Sevish has a tutorial about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hginh_dGJLU

Incase you need my python script anyway (works for equal division tunings), I'll paste it below (to use it run the code in a Pyhton interpreter and then copy paste the text output to a text editor and save the text file in .scl format. You can then locate and load the file from Zynaddsubfx). However, I don't see much reason to use it considering that the Scale workshop exists.

Code: Select all

#Scale files equal division
number_of_notes = 19
interval_to_divide = 1200 #in cents
custom_title = "" #leave empty quotation marks for automatic title

def print_title():
    if custom_title=="":
        if interval_to_divide==1200:
            print(str(number_of_notes)+" EDO")
        else:
            print(str(number_of_notes)+" note equal division of "+str(interval_to_divide)+" cents")
    else: print custom_title

def print_notes():
    for i in range (number_of_notes):
        print ((interval_to_divide*1.0)/number_of_notes)*(i+1)
   
print_title()
print number_of_notes
print_notes()