Microtonal support

• Dec 19, 2022 - 05:44

Microtonalist here. I have some ideas regarding better integration of microtonality.

A couple things that would really be useful:
- Fix Muse Sounds so it supports detuning; it currently does not do so
- Shift more accidentals into the accidentals palette instead of in the lonely, vast, "Symbols" menu where they don't even engrave correctly
- Add a preference to automatically change the "Tuning" value of a note based on its current accidental, e.g. auto-set notes with semisharps to 50 cents, 66 cents, or whatever I set it to

And more major changes that aren't really necessary:
- Have a system similar to Dorico's (which is superior in my opinion) where you can set the distance in steps between adjacent diatonic pitch classes and then create accidentals to make alterations within said system, e.g. for 17-edo you would set C-D, D-E, F-G, G-A, and A-B as 3 steps and E-F and B-C as 1 step (3+3+3+3+3+1+1=17), then set a sharp to mean 2 steps up and a flat to mean 2 steps down
- If all else fails, implement this plugin; it supports equal temperaments from 5 to 117, uses arrow accidentals and semisharps/semiflats, and can use key signatures: https://musescore.org/en/project/5-117-edo-retuning-transposing-plugins…

Or, the more grandeur idea:
Add a big plugin thingy, similar to MuseScore Drumline, that adds major support microtonality and sacrifices some less important things, like some instruments or other things.

Just some ideas.


Comments

2) Shift more accidentals into the accidentals palette
They already are, arent they?
Accidentals.png

3) Automatic playback should be added, but I think, it should folow accidentals definitions, as it is in SMUFL, at least those, with fixed meaning (24EDO, JUST, Persian, Turkisch, ...)

4) Dorico system is powerfull and flexibile for many things, but also is not ideal. For example using Just intonation Accidentals seemes to be much more difficualt, than it should be.
You need to set custom tonality. But You need system, which covers 12 (standard notation), and also 81:80, 36:35, 33:32, 65:64 for accidentals. Least Comon Multiple of 12, 33, 36, 65 and 81 is 231660
Do we really need 231660 EDO for just 4 just intonation accidentals?

7) Feature, I miss probably most, is "real support" for miscrotonal accidentals. Now, they are only decorative. Note following note with microtonal accidental is natural in Musescore, but should be same microtonal, as previous. This should be also for key signatures. See:
microtonal_state.png

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.