Tunes, Improvisations, Bird Song, New Fractal Tunes
If you haven't already done it, download Scala and set it up. Also, download the scales archive, which you can find at the bottom of the page. Read Scala's readme.txt file.
Then, if you haven't already, download Fractal Tune Smithy Beta Preview (FTS) and install it by running the Setup program.
Now start up FTS, and go to FTS | Buttons menu | Scales Options | Scala Scales. Then follow the instructions - Browse for Scala scales... to find your new Scala Scales folder - the one with all the .scl files in it. Then, use Browse for Scala app. to find Scala itself - shown as scala.exe, or just Scala, in the files lists, the icon is a musical note surrounded by a spiral staircase. It's in your new Scala folder, the one you installed Scala into. This will fill in the Scala scales folder box and the Location of Scala application box. Then click the button to Make all the Scala related files. This makes the drop lists of all the Scala scales, and all the Scala modes, and also the file smithy.cmd used to start FTS from Scala. If you have a regular FTS version (not a Beta version) and installed it in the suggested location, then the smithy.cmd supplied with Scala will already work, but there's no harm in letting it be overwritten.
To find the new lists of scales you have just made, go to the main window Scales list and scroll down to the More Scales... entry. You'll find them in that list.
To test if everything is working, click Show current scale in Scala. This should start up Scala. It should also start it up with whatever scale you have showing in the FTS main window. If this doesn't work in Windows NT/2000, try going to the Scala folder and deleting the files xxx.scl and show_xxx.cmd (if present) and then try again.
Now you can use all the Scala capabilities to investigate scales and use them. One common use is to show all the intervals of the scale, using View | Show Intervals in Scala.
To go back the other way, from within Scala type @smithy in the command line and it should then show the scale in FTS. Or otherwise, if you have the newest Scala version, you can also do File | @smithy. This menu item will appear if the smithy.cmd file is in the Scala directory. For the @smithy command to work from Scala, you need to start it up with its own folder as its working directory. If this doesn't work, try typing dir *.cmd in Scala and see if the file smithy.cmd is listed.
If that doesn't work, then it probably means that you have copied Scala onto your desktop instead of making a desktop shortcut to it, and are trying to run Scala from your desktop, without the files it needs. To make a desktop shortcut for Scala, find it in its folder in Windows Explorer, right click on it, then with right button held down, drag it to the desktop, then release, and with left button select Create shortcut here. Alternatively, use Right click on scala.exe, then select Copy (left button), then right click on desktop, and select Paste shortcut. When the shortcut appears on the desktop, right click on it, select Properties and choose the option to run it minimized. This will prevent the console window to appear on the screen. The Scala windows however will appear when it starts.
Each time you do use the the @smithy command, it will start up a new copy of FTS.
If you decide later you want to show all the scales in the same instance of the program, go back to FTS, click Update smithy.cmd only and answer No this time. So, now you've gone both ways.
You can search and sort the scales, more of which is explained in the help for Buttons | Scales Options | Search scales or modes list, and Sort scales or modes list.
This is a small additional program for adding Windows open /
save, copy to clipboard and paste actions to Scala - see the open_etc_readme.txt file
for details. It is included in the latest version of Scala, you
don't need to do anything else to install it.
Instead of using the Scala Open menu item, type @open into the Scala
command line (at the bottom of the main window), select the file
from the dialog, then type @o
to load it.
To copy output from Scala to the clipboard, use @c, then do the Scala
commands you want to copy for, and then @copy
at the end (so this is the other way round, @c
first, and then @copy
at the end). The copy to clipboard doesn't pay any attention to
any highlighting you do in Scala. Instead, it copies all the
output you make between the two commands. At some time in the
future, this Scala clipboard problem will be fixed.
Scala has a Linux style open dialog, and a command to save all the output to a text file. However, Windows users may be happier if they can copy it to the clipboard, and use the Windows Explorer style Open dialog that one is familiar with in other Windows programs. Also see the open_etc_readme.txt in the zip for details.
10 Nov 2001