I think I found the perfect quantizer: the Tubbutec µTune. Lo and behold, a guy, called Tony Dubshot was giving a presentation about the use of quantizers in his Eurorack system, at the 5 year anniversary of Noodlefest here in Rotterdam last year. I asked him for an interview and he agreed.
So, here's the video: it's quite long (+20 minutes), and we still only scratch the surface of what it can do.


The µTune manufacturer homepage: mTune | tubbutec
Tony Dubshot's blog: ~ dubbhism ~
The Scala Homepage: Scala Home Page
The Xenharmonic Wiki page: xenharmonic (microtonal wiki) - Microtonal music

I sold my Doepfer A-156 and ordered this module. Do you use different scales in your music? If so, how, and with which module(s)?

no one here is into microtonal ? interesting..
what about the video? feedback ?

I can barely figure out chromatic tuning. XD

The closest I get to microtonal is using really long slews between standard chromatic notes. It can be really fun but to my ears trained on western music unless it resolves to notes in a traditional scale it just sounds out of tune. As a guitar player though I do like hitting those in between notes but I always think of them in terms of bending between one note and another.

I thought microtonal was when you didn't use a quantizer. It looks like a featureful module though.

I have some micro tuning scales on my MOTM-650 MIDI to CV interface and of course I can tune up a step sequencer to non-standard scale but I rarely attempt to do any of that.

The video was good but I would have preferred to have longer sections of synth examples with no talking over the top and a better volume balance between the conversation and synth examples. (synth was way to quiet)

Yes, I agree, more sound examples. Something for a future video (if everything goes right, I'll be able to buy the module end of this month).

The voice/synth level was what the microphone picked up. The audio was recorded seperately, but wasn't good enough: It wasn't clipped but for some reason was a square wave, and didn't fit.

I'll watch
but I doubt this can do anything O_c cannot. it's a microtuning monster. and programmable.




edit:
did he really just end his interview with a "whatever" ???? not a salesman I guess.
The difference between this and O_c would be the editing of scales on the module
where on the O_c you'd have to do the programming on the side.


personally my microtonal needs are focused on ratio intonations with a shifting root.

Thanks for taking the time. Yeah O_c is on my (growing) list to DIY.
hahaha Yeah that's dutch attitude for you. Incomprehensible for the rest of the planet I noticed. No, he's not a salesman at all. He's a musician and runs a small but dedicated indie dub music label. I think this was his first interview, it turned out more like a talk than a slick sales presentation. I've also taped his presentation, he's got some interesting ideas about using microtonality in patches, but sadly that material wasn't good enough for a youtube. I've attented him to this thread, maybe he can join the discussion.

Plus the µTune can function as a precise CV to MIDI and MIDI to CV interface. Which is reason enough for me to get one. (since I sold my Moon Modular 552, I really miss it)
When I get the µTune I'll post my findings. We've only scratched the surface in the video, comparing the two modules.

Hi,
Tobi from Tubbutec here, creator of the µTune module. Should you have any questions, please ask. I'll be monitoring this thread.

µTune can do a lot of things, only a few are mentioned in the video. When this video was filmed back in September, µTune had just been released and Tony was the first customer (#003). He did not really have time to prepare anything for this demonstration, even the user manual was in a very early state.
I am very thankful that he did nevertheless take some time to demo the module and showed a bit what it can do.

For a full list check out: mTune | tubbutec

It is a CV to midi and midi to CV interface with voice allocation. It contains a tuner and will be able to continue correct oscillator pitch (see video linked below).
You can load and save scales directly via SD card. And of course edit them.
I am sure there a more features O_C can not do (V/Hz mode? Freely configurable inputs and outputs?), but never looked at O_C in detail..
There will be an expand module available in Spring and you'll be able to expand µTune to at least 8 channels (probably more)

Hello, whatever here

I have some resources for you to. But first for mister oinkbanana the reason why i mentioned the Ornament & Crime. This is because for years we had a situation where it was impossible to do any proper microtonal quantizing at all in eurorack format (and yes, i do own the ADDAC intuitive quantizer) and now suddenly, around the same time, we have TWO modules capable of doing this. That's quite extraordinary. But having said that, these modules are totally different beasts. The only similarity is the quantizing option, but the way the µTune handles this is very different from the way the O&C does it. Put simply, in the O&C it feels a bit more like hacking, but in practice you can really do a lot of stuff with it.

I have some sound examples of how you can lock a tuning to a timbre, and also a blogpost explaining a basic trick using fm.



~ dubbhism ~: Modular Microtones #1

And i have also attached the presentation that i gave on the same day we did the interview. It has some links to interesting youtube videos and to other resources

That is SICK!! I never knew i wanted 8 channels. Really great news Tobi!

Im awaiting the SH-1oh1 U-tune retrofit. I went for the U-tune version as Im a 'more is more' type of guy.

I was hoping for some pointers on different tuning options. Ive has a look at the Scala page, but as with the previous poster; Im a musical amatuer and have had no training. I like making noises and enjoy some of the more atonal, off key sounding stuff. The Black Dog, Redcell, Aphex Twin.

Ultimately I will try some out and see what I like...but any recommendations or experiences would be welcome!

Ultimately it comes down to your personal taste. Probably best to just experiment with a couple of scales.
Lots of info about tunings here:
xenharmonic (microtonal wiki) - home

Or you could just listen to microtonal music, see which scales you like. Sevish tells you the scale for each of his pieces:
YouTube
You can find his scale pack here:
Scale Packs | tubbutec

Expanders for µTune are now availible. This means Quantizing, midi2CV, CV2midi, tuner and much more on up to 8 channels:

https://tubbutec.de/%C2%B5tune/

Very cool!

Not available anywhere. :(

Yes, we have not been able to manufacture new modules for 2 years due to the semiconductor crisis

Thanks for the information. I hope the situation improves eventually.