MICHAEL W. DEAN

DOWNLOAD FreakBone 9000 beta VST2 HERE (2.5 meg zip)

FreakBone 9000 is a crazy intentionally messy sounding microtonal VST2 synth based on Microtone 5000. But moving the Mod Wheel on your controller activates the oddness. Demo MP3 link of FreakBone 9000 above.

(It has a different VST ID, so won’t interfere with any projects you’ve made with Microtone 5000.)

It has 32 presets and 5374 microtonal tunings. Any tuning with work with any preset or you can make your own presets with any of the tunings.

This synth is very similar to Microtone 5000, except the Mod wheel works, is set to wrong extremely far out (yet harmless) values, and it makes the mod wheel do different freaky things.

HOW TO USE FreakBone 9000

This is the VST without the tuning files, so if you have Microtone 5000, unzip and put in the same folder, as FreakBone 9000 needs to share the microtonal tuning files from that VST (folder is named TuningFiles):

If you don’t have Microtone 5000, get it here. (FreakBone 9000 will work with the tuning files for either the VST2 or VST3, either version of each, of Microtone 5000. It’s all the same tuning files. Will also work with the tuning files (same files) in Simple Microtonal Sampler, either VST2 or VST3 of that will be fine, too.)

Don’t wiggle the mod wheel as you would with other VSTs, so much as gently move it to different positions, or even just leave it where it sounds good. Will sound all kinds of crazy. Try moving it just a little ways away from off. Then a bit more. Then all the way. Sometimes the best sound is in the middle somewhere or near the start, sometimes full throttle.

There will not be a VST3 of this one.

WHAT PARAMETERS DOES THE MOD WHEEL CHANGE?

It changes whatever the

LFO Assign

drop-down picker in the lower left is set to. (If you use the OFF setting on that picker, it does nothing.)

And those sliders to the left of that drop-down affect it.

Usually the VF Rate slider (far bottom left) has to be somewhere in the middle for the most extreme effect.

That’s normally the kind of thing that a Mod Wheel would change, but my VF Rate slider can go to -20v (virtual), on most synths it wouldn’t. Would probably go to zero or maybe -1.

WHOSE CAT IS THAT?

That’s our cat Beast. He’s a little freak bone.

–Michael W. Dean, BipTunia (music), and BipTunia Synths.

May 1, 2023

=–==–=-

TUNINGS IN AUDIO EXAMPLE

Through all of it as chimes:

• zesster_c (Harmonic six-star, group C on Eb, from Fokker
  8)

Then these five, about a minute each over that with different sounds and slowly moving the mod wheel:

• kurzweil_arab (Kurzweil Emperical Arabic)
• lambdoma _prim (Prime Lambdoma)
• mohajira-to-slendro (From Mohajira to Aeolian and Slendros)
• ptolemy_diat5 (Sterea lyra, Dorian, comb. of 2 Tonic Diatonic 4chords, also Archytas’ diatonic 7)
• rast pentachord 5-limit (Rast pentachord 600:675:744:800:900)

=—————–

SOMEONE ASKED ON FACEBOOK “WHY VST2 ONLY? I HEARD VST3 IS BETTER”?

MY REPLY:

—

(Posted on two Microtonal / Xenharmonic Facebook groups, one here has a lot of comments with all sorts of takes on this)

I see a lot of energy devoted to that here, and elsewhere by people here.
I know the difference, and I know why Xen is more specific, (can be less than 12 per octave, not just more than 12 per octave, plus, who even needs octaves??)

And I know it’s also less based on a reaction to one type of tuning, 12TET. It seems less ethnocentric to say XEN.

I’ve even had people here CORRECT me (!) when I say “Microtonal”, like I’m some noob who doesn’t make Xen music and software. That comes off as welcome as someone proselyting their religion.

I see people trying to force it with the public, but it’s NEVER going to work, in my prediction. It also comes off as nitpicky when the best thing to do is just play the music for people and not worry about their nomenclature as much at first, or the math (unless they’re really into math.)

I taught a bunch of people who don’t play music the difference, tried to get them to say “Xen” or “Xenharmonic” instead of “Microtonal.” But “microtonal” always wins out in what they actually use, in the court of public opinion.

Fighting this is like telling young people not to use their own slang. Actually it’s more like Linux / GNU co-inventor (and GNU License inventor) Richard Stallman. He spends a lot of his time, for decades, sending emails trying to convince the world that they’re wrong, and they need to only ever:

1. Say “Ga-Nu Slash Linux” where they normally say Linux
and
2. “Free Software” doesn’t mean software that doesn’t cost money. It can ONLY means software licensed under the GNU License (or a license with equivalent rights.)

He’s sent several of these emails to me. And I’ve seen dozens of them he’s sent to other people and organizations, and many that he’s published, plus he travels giving talks that are largely about that.

Some high 90s percent of people will always say “free software” for software that costs no money, not for open source software. And some high 90s percent of people will never say “Ga-Nu Slash Linux” instead of “Linux.”

It’s a losing battle to try to get people to use Xenharmonic by telling them to use it, especially by correcting them.

I’m not saying stop using xenharmonic here, and I’m not saying rename the Xenharmonic Alliance.

I’m saying the public doesn’t care and you’re not going to get most people to switch.

Thoughts? (I bet y’all have some, and I bet a lot of people disagree.)

–Michael W. Dean

EDIT: OK, solved. Let’s call it “Micronal.” (not microtonal) This may have been a typo from Steve O’Brien, but I dig it, and it’s one syllable shorter than both microtonal and xenharmonic. lol.

MICROTONE 5000, new free Microtonal VST. 64-bit Windows. New from BipTunia Synths: https://biptunia.com/?p=10403

Below is audio of a piece I’m working on, called “Slow Blink.” The ring modulator on a synth comes in at 13 seconds. Schematic of the 4-diode design of a ring mod above. Has a sound like a broken bell. Without it this synth part sounds very clean, same as the synth that precedes it.

Ring modulators were originally hardware. I use a software version. But still, on a microscopic level, it’s probably using 2/3 of a transistor, 4 times, on my CPU. A transistor is 2 diodes with 3 leads, so you can use 2/3 of a transistor as a diode.

FULL FINAL ALBUM HERE.

# ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING DETAILS:

My latest #astrophotography photo. M31, plus of course, M32 and M110. I’m BipTunia on AstroBin if you want to add me or write to confirm I took this.

Taken with two scopes, total of 6 hours 39 minutes integration. Bortle 2.8, rural, north east Oregon farm.

This photo was done OSC (one-shot color), no filters, natural color. Did no Star Reduction. Tried it but liked it better without.

I use an IR modified DSLR, a Canon 90D, RedCat 51 telescope (250 mm), and Astro-Tech AT80ED (488 mm when adjusted for field flattener.) Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount. Guiding scope: ZWO 30mm Mini Guider Scope.

Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini. SharpCap on laptop for polar align and plate solving live. Used Phd2 on laptop for guiding.

All 60-second exposures, 800 ISO. Shot these this summer, previously output as two different images.

Went through images manually to remove any that had odd framing, were blurry (usually at the start of session before tracking gets good), or there was a cloud or airplane. Deleted any of those. I know it can be done automatically in DSS or in PixInsight, but I”m new enough to get a kick out of seeing each image and doing it myself.)

Stacked each scope set in DSS. Brought in lights, darks, flats, and dark flats I took during the session. Used defaults from there.

It’s been cloudy now for over a month where I live so I decided to reprocess and combine both scopes’ shots.

Brought output TIFF from each scope into PixInsight. Registered together in StarAlingment using one as reference for both.

Staked in ImageIntegration. First made copy of each since least you can stack is 3 images. Got one combined stacked Tiff, took into:

–AutoBackgroundExtractor. Target Image Correction (on bottom), Correction: set to DIVISION

Drag triangle onto image.

Delete ABE Background and Original file. Work now on (filename)_ABE

close AutoBackgroundExtractor.

–On ScreenTransferFunction, hit “Nuke” symbol

–Used RangeSelect / HDR MultiscaleTransform to bring out details while protecting core of M31 and M110 from being blown out.

–Applied BlurXterminator, with defaults.

–ColorCalibration / ColorCalibration. Hit little “document” icon (with nothing inside) at top below “workspace”.

Pick darkest small area of image, make a box.

On ColorCalibration, go down to BackGround Reference.

Click box to right of drop down area. Pick Preview01. Hit OK.

Change BackGround Reference Upper Limit to: 0.0050000

Drag triangle onto image.

close ColorCalibration.

============

ScreenTransferFunction: LINK LINK LINK and Nuke.

=====

SCNR. Drag triangle onto image. (set to green) close SCNR. or skip if you want to leave some green.

–(still open): ScreenTransferFunction. Stay linked. Hit + Click on color bar to Zoom a few times. Click Arrow. Hit arrow left / top right, then Slide to change Background color.

–HistogramTransformation

Drag ScreenTransferFunction triangle onto HistogramTransformation bottom of gray bar at bottom of entire window.

–Drag HistogramTransformation triangle to image. Image turns white.

–ScreenTransferFunction reset. Bottom values should now be higher.

–Applied NoiseXterminator with defaults.

OUTPUT UNCOMPRESSED TIFF, pick 16 bit, the default is always 32 bit.
Bring into Photoshop, increase contrast, brightness, and saturation a tiny bit on whole image.

Did cropping to remove some space where not a lot was happening, to make M31 take up more of image.