The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

Clicking on Ratio Scale brings up this page. Across the top are twelve fields for the numerator and
twelve fields for the denominator of the twelve ratios that define the scale. The buttons at the lower left
are used to preset the ratios to three different example ratio scales. ‡ To change a value, click the mouse in
the field, and type in the new value. To cause the tuning to be updated with the new value, either press
Enter, press Tab to go to the next field, or click in a different field.
The central view is common to all of the tuning pages in this Tool. It describes an octave starting on the
tonic key number specified on the main page. It lists the MIDI key number, the absolute frequency of that
key number in this scale, the ratio of the scale degree to the tonic, and the cents difference in pitch between
the tonic and the scale degree.
The buttons at the lower right are also common to all of the tuning pages in this Tool:
♦ Create Example opens an untitled Sound file window containing an example using the current tuning
and currently selected instrument.
♦ Load allows you to select a text file containing a tuning that you had saved earlier. The information in
the file is then used to set the parameters in the current tuning method. The Tool either uses the information
in the file directly (if the current tuning method is the same as the one used when saving
the file), or it comes up with a set of parameters for this tuning method that approximates the tuning
in the text file.
♦ Save saves the parameters for the current tuning into a text file. Even though the Tool shows only one
octave of the scale, the text file contains a listing of the frequencies in hertz of the 128 MIDI key numbers.
You may find it useful to open this file with a text editor to view or edit that information.
♦ Back takes you back to the main tuning page.
‡ Thanks to Brian Belet of the San Jose State University for providing the ratios of the “BB Sharp Chromatic (5-limit)
Just Scale” used for the Just scale example.
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