A new web app called Scale Workshop allows you to design and play your own microtonal scales. You can also tune various other synthesizers with it. It has just reached version 1.0 and is now recommended for use by the wider musician community.

Scale Workshop has these aims in mind:

Scale creation . Use the tools to generate and modify tunings automatically, or manually input your own.

. Use the tools to generate and modify tunings automatically, or manually input your own. Import Scala and AnaMark tunings . Yes it works with that amazing 4000+ scale library that’s floating around the internet.

. Yes it works with that amazing 4000+ scale library that’s floating around the internet. Export the most popular tuning formats easily . Converting .scl files and .tun files is fast. It also exports tuning files for Kontakt, Max/MSP and PureData.

. Converting .scl files and .tun files is fast. It also exports tuning files for Kontakt, Max/MSP and PureData. No installation required . Scale Workshop runs in your web browser on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux.

. Scale Workshop runs in your web browser on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux. Free and open-source. The software costs nothing and it is MIT licensed. Volunteers have already contributed new features and bug fixes on our GitHub repository. Feature requests and bug reports are welcome from anybody.

What else does Scale Workshop do?

Scale Workshop puts a polyphonic synth right inside your browser. You can audition and perform your scales by playing with a connected MIDI controller, QWERTY keyboard, or by using the touch-screen overlay.

Convert scl files and convert tun files to various tuning formats. Export formats include Scala .scl/.kbm, AnaMark TUN, Native Instruments Kontakt tuning script, Max/MSP coll text format and Pure Data text format.

Share your scales with other people by copy-and-pasting the URL in your address bar while working on your scale. The recipient will instantly see your scale information and can play it using their keyboard. This is invaluable for communicating your tuning ideas with others, or allowing your musical collaborators to export your tuning in whatever format they prefer. Try it out.

Display frequencies, cents and decimal values for your tuning across all 128 MIDI notes.

List of supported synths

Note that this list is incomplete.

Via AnaMark TUN (.tun)

Big Tick Angelina

Big Tick Rhino

Camel Audio Alchemy 1.x

Humanoid Sound Systems Enzyme

LinPlug Alpha

LinPlug CRX4

LinPlug MorphoX

LinPlug Octopus

LinPlug Organ 3

LinPlug SaxLab

LinPlug Spectral

Mark Henning AnaMark

PolyGAS

Spectrasonics Omnisphere

TAL BassLine-101

TAL Sampler

TAL U-NO-LX

u-he ACE

u-he Bazille

u-he Diva

u-he Hive

u-he Zebra

VAZ Modular

VAZ Plus

Virtual CZ

Xfer Serum

Via Scala .scl/.kbm

amsynth

Applied Acoustics Chromaphone 2

Applied Acoustics Lounge Lizard EP-4

Applied Acoustics String Studio VS-2

Applied Acoustics Ultra Analog VA-2

Cakewalk Dimension Pro

Cakewalk Rapture Pro

Cakewalk Z3TA+2

Garritan Personal Orchestra 4

Imageline Harmor

kv331audio Synthmaster and Synthmaster One

Key Tuner JSFX Script

Madrona Labs Aalto

Madrona Labs Kaivo

Madrona Labs Virta

Modartt Pianoteq

padthv1

Plogue Alter/Ego

Plogue Chipsounds

Plogue Sforzando

PolyGAS

Reveal Sound Spire

samplv1

synthv1

UVI Falcon

ZynAddSubFX

Zyn-Fusion

Others

Max/MSP (via text file you can load into the coll object)

PureData (via text file you can load into the text object)

Native Instruments Kontakt (via text file you can load into the Kontakt script editor)

A personal note

This has been a labour of love for almost 2 years – I hope that many people will find it useful! If you want to share any work you’ve created with Scale Workshop then I’d love to hear about it.

Now that Scale Workshop is in a stable state, I am going to focus my attention back on composing new music and hosting the Now&Xen microtonal podcast.

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