MAKAM TUNING FILE

LOADING THE FILE

Synths that read Scala files — among them Surge XT, Vital, Pianoteq (Standard and Pro), Spire, UVI Falcon, Synthmaster and Plogue Sforzando: load the .scl as the scale and the .kbm as the keyboard map. The map puts the karar on the key of its written note — Dügâh on A, Rast on G, Segâh on B — and every perde on the key it is written on, so the white and black keys you already read from notation play the makam; keys the makam does not use are left unmapped (most synths keep them silent). Synths that read .tun files — such as u-he Diva, Zebra and Repro, TAL-Sampler and Vital: load the .tun; it uses the same keys, and a key the makam does not use repeats the scale note below it. Ableton Live 12: drag the .ascl into the Tuning section of your Live Set; the file carries the karar's exact frequency, so the scale sounds at the right pitch for the ahenk you chose.

If your DAW cannot load a tuning file: load the .scl and .kbm, or the .tun, into one of those synths inside your DAW — the tuning travels with the synth, so it works in any DAW. To retune several instruments at once, ODDSound's MTS-ESP lets one plugin send the tuning to every plugin that supports it; the free Surge XT can act as that source.

53 KOMAS, EXACTLY

Every value comes from the same Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek data as the Turkish Makam pages and the Makam Tuner: the octave is 53 equal komas of 22.64 cents, Rast is 196 Hz in Bolâhenk, and each ahenk lowers the whole scale by a fixed number of komas. The file writes each note in cents above the karar, as the Scala format requires, with the octave (2/1) as the last line.

This is the theory taught in Turkish conservatoires. Performers place some perdes — Segâh and Eviç above all — slightly differently, so treat the file as the reference scale, not as the last word on how a makam is played.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Which file should I download?
Ableton Live 12: the .ascl. A synth with a Scala option: the .scl and the .kbm together. A synth that asks for a .tun (u-he, TAL and others): the .tun. All of them carry the same pitches, to well under a hundredth of a cent.

What is the difference between .ascl and .scl?
An .ascl file is a Scala .scl file with extra lines for Ableton Live 12 — the karar's frequency and the perde names — written as comments, so any Scala reader can still open it. A plain .scl has no frequency of its own; its .kbm keyboard map supplies it.

Why does the karar change with the ahenk?
Ahenk is the pitch level an instrument or ensemble plays at. Music is written in Bolâhenk; a Mansur ney, for example, sounds about a fifth lower. The file keeps the karar on the key of its written note and tunes it to the frequency it actually sounds in that ahenk.

Why does Sabâ have eight notes?
Sabâ's scale does not repeat at the octave: its eighth note, Şehnaz, is four komas below the octave of the karar. Keeping all eight notes inside the octave is the only way a repeating keyboard scale can play it correctly.