L’il Miss Scale OvenTM (LMSO)
LMSO is a tuning software programme for Macintosh computers designed and manufactured by composer and computer engineer X J Scott. It allows the user to retune hardware and software instruments with consummate ease. Natural intonations, ethnic tunings, experimental and historical scales, for example, can be set up and transmitted via MIDI in a fraction of the time it would take to do this by conventional means. If you have previously spent our upon hour of number crunching and button fiddling to retune synthesisers and samplers to hear alternative intervals and tunings, the speed and ease of this LMSO feature alone is probably enough to recommend the programme. It is easy, intuitive and fun to experiment with freely with non–standard scales and tunings.
If you are interested in tunings, whatever your musical background, LMSO will revolutionise your working methods and open your ears to a multitude of possibilities. Scales are imputed numerically using equal divisions, cents or ratios, and are displayed graphically. To input from scatch a 19 division scale, for example, and send it to a synth or sampler can take just a couple of minutes. If the scale is already stored in the LMSO scale library (which comes nicely stocked a range of standard and non–standard scales), then the process is literally three clicks. And, of course, when a scale has been inputted once, it can be stored for immediate recall from the library.
Here’s a summary of LMSO’s other features:
- analysis of the degree of consonance and dissonance of a scale using a perceptual model of hearing
- intuitive IQ Scale Editing Module for iterative and interactive quantization of scales to closest matches of just and equal–temperaments within a desired degree of match.
- Cupcake Microtonal Synthesizer: a 16 part multitimbral, 64 voice virtual synthesizer/keyboard that can be played without external synthesizer and accepts sequenced tuning changes, separate scales per part and realtime tuning without glitching
- Universal Tuning Format Translator can read, write and convert almost any tuning/scale file format
Further details, including supported instruments, can be found at the inventor's website www.nonoctave.com
Buy now
You can purchase LMSO online from Kagi for $165 (inc. p&p). A portion of all sales through Kagi goes to support the work of Microtonal Projects Ltd.
Technical support
Microtonal Projects are able to provide technical support by email and can answer any technical queries in advance of purchase. Studios and institutions in the UK can request a site visit and demonstration.