Tunes, Improvisations, Bird Song, New Fractal Tunes
Last uploaded 8th September 2001
Download, Updating, Removing, Reset to defaults, Scales For Voice Channels help, Root control channels, Exploring chords in the Wilson CPS sets, Midi Relaying help, Midi relay from a midi keyboard, Change the tuning of a standard twelve tone midi file, Retune the staves of a score editor, FFT help Open_etc.zip (for SCALA), For programmers
This will be site for my programs download pages when the one at nbci closes.
Beta preview:
FractalTuneSmithySetup_109_beta.exe.
Or try: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robertwalker/FractalTuneSmithySetup_109_beta.exe
Suitable for: Windows 95/98.
I don't yet recommend it for Windows NT / Windows 2000, though you are welcome to try it out and send me bug reports! First I have to install the OS here and debug it in that environment.
This download is the one with the new features described on this page.
I would recommend installing this one into a new folder, rather than on top of the old beta, if you have it. I have just completed a fairly extensive overhaul of the midi relaying; and an even more extensive overhaul of the part of the program to do with saving values from one session to the next, and saving fractal tunes.
Latest: Still finding bugs to fix, and would like to run it in for another few more days before recommending that one replaces the old beta. If you find the numbers are shown to 14 figures in the scale window, then this is because of a bug in the save to / read from .ini file in an earlier version of the beta preview - sorry about that. To reset to the defaults for the numbers, go to File | Number Options | O (yellow/ red O icon) to show the "Organise windows" window, then click Reset. Also visit File | Number Options | Ratios and do likewise. To reset everything to the defaults, you can use File | Reset tick boxes etc.
For help for some of the new sections, see the rest of this page. You may want to save this page into the same folder as the program, for reference. Eventually this material will be included in the help for FTS.
I'd recommend this beta preview as the one for use for Midi relaying now, as it has so many more features for it than the beta proper, and has a better layout. If you do come across any bugs, I can fix them "instantly" = usually within a day or two.
For fractal tunes, this beta has one new option - see Buttons... | Seeds Options | Seed Pos Increment. For example, try any of the example fractal tunes, and tick the option to move forward an extra note, and hear how it gets transformed. Idea is that the seed for the next level can move forward one note in the middle of a seed, instead of moving forward only at the start of the seed of the previous level as it does by default. Also new options for editing the seed from Seed... | Edit main window Seed and Seed... | As text. However option to Sing / whistle a seed for the fractal tune is v. much work in progress still.
For scales work, one new idea is in File | Number Options | Ratios Options | Factors to use for approximate ratios. Try for example entering a tolerance in cents for pure ratios, e.g. 1 cent, or whateverfactors, e.g. 2 3 5 for 5-limit. Then set a max quotient. If you have only three factors, this can be set as high as you like, e.g. 100000000000 (useful for exploring remoter areas of lattices, and the various "commas"). If you have four or more factors, it is rather slower, and a max quotient of 10000 may be more suitable. You can use Ctrl + Shift to interrupt the calculation.
The new FFT and wave counting options are very much work in progress. More on those later.
Next beta should be finished soonish
For help for some of the new sections, see the links at the top of this page. Other sections don't have any help for them yet - if you want to know how to use them, contact me at fts_help@rcwalker.freeserve.co.uk.
The old beta can be downloaded from:
(last updated in January!)
For the beta proper, type #u into the Time for one note box to show the upload date, and check to see if the one on the beta download page is more recent.
The newest beta previews show the upload date in the About box.
I plan to do some re-organising of the pages before moving it here, if time permits.
The find notes section of the program is very much mid edit at present - don't expect it to just work and make the clips like the ones on the birdsong page quite yet. Will do soon!
Urls are: next beta in progress:
FractalTuneSmithySetup_109_beta.exe.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robertwalker/FractalTuneSmithySetup_109_beta.exe
To see if this is more recent than the one you already have, check the date at the head of this page, and compare with the date you see in Help | About. If you don't see a date there, then this beta preview will be more up to date than the one you have (and you can find your date, if curious, by typing #u into the Time for one note box).
You may want to save this download page into same folder as the program - it includes new material that will presently be added to the help for FTS.
Run the installer in the usual way. It will install on top of the earlier installation. There's no need to remove the old one first.
The installer will replace any files that are more recent than the ones you have already, and add any new files that there may be.
If you want to reset all the FTS settings to the ones that you had when you first installed it, then the best way to do this is via File | Reset Check boxes etc, plus File | New.
Alternatively (has same effect), delete the file Program Files | Fractal Tune Smithy | Fractal Tune Smithy.ini before starting the session.
This resets everything except a few settings listed in the file start_up_etc which you'll also find in the Program Files | Fractal Tune Smithy directory.
Removing and re-installing FTS doesn't reset the settings, because the .ini file remains behind after the program is removed - see next section.
If you do wish to remove Fractal Tune Smithy you can do it from Start | Programs | Fractal Tune Smithy | Remove Fractal Tune Smithy, or from Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add / Remove Programs | Install / Uninstall. This removes any files that have remained unchanged since you installed them.
The uninstaller doesn't remove any files you have edited or saved yourself (standard behaviour in an installer). This also includes the .ini file, which gets
automatically saved at the end of each session provided you have File | Auto save config. If you want to delete these files, browse to Program Files | Fractal Tune Smithy and delete anything you find left there that you don't want to keep.
You can save your current settings first by using File | Save As | Files of type | Configuration settings (you need to scroll down the drop list of file types to find this).
To reset everything to the defaults, choose File | Reset Check boxes etc, or for ones that affect the fractal tune, File | New. Doing both of these has same effect as a clean re-install of the program, except for a very small number of rarely changed things. These last few are recorded in the file startup_etc - things like the location of the SCALA program on your hard disk, and whether to play a tune when starting by file association.
To get back to previously saved settings: File | Open | Files of type | Configuration settings.
You can also reset the defaults for a particular window - show the Organise Windows window by clicking on the yellow O icon, then choose Reset, either for tune, or for configuration settings. This window also has options to open and save the configuration settings and / or tune info for the window, as appropriate.
Some of the more rarely used options can cause puzzlement if ticked. Example: option to relay directly from midi in to midi out, in order to do a hex dump of the midi in stream. I've recently added message boxes asking if that's what you want to do for the ones that could puzzle. Do let me know if any of the remaining ones also cause puzzlement, and I'll add more message boxes to the program.
If you find FTS keeps going back to the same defaults at start of each session, could mean you have File | Auto Save Config. unticked. In case that happens to anyone, I've added a message for that one too.
Scales for Voice Channels help
To find this window:
In | Options | Scales for Voice Channels
As a quick way to get started, go on to
In | Options | Scales for Voice Channels | Presets
Then try out some of the presets. If trying them out from a single midi keyboard, then choose Select voice channel by keyboard regions from the drop list at the bottom of the window, and set the Left-most note of the keyboard for the root controls to the left most note of your keyboard.
The whole window is based around the idea of a voice channel, so a brief explanation of that may help.
By a voice channel, I mean the channel the notes will be sent out on if one unticks Out | Options | Ok to change channels for pitch bends. You can select a patch into a voice channel, and then anything played in that channel will be played with the appropriate patch, in whichever of the Midi Out channels it is relayed to. You can also apply effects to a voice channel (Pan, modulation, tremulo and portamento so far, but in near future I will add them all), and if so, these also will be relayed accordingly.
The idea here is that we are selecting a scale + arpeggio into a voice channel.
When retuning the output from a score editor, or sequencing program, you may want to choose Patches