Promo video for a musical device designed for Ableton Live.
Microtuner by Ableton
Directed and Edited by Ray Wassef
Script, Performance, and Music by Iftah Gabbai
Conceived by Iftah Gabbai, Matt Jackson, and Ray Wassef
Visuals generated by Iftah Gabbai, Micha Kirchberger, and Ray Wassef
Western music – and particularly Western music-making software – is largely restricted to 12-tone musical scales. To address this cultural bias, Ableton introduced a MIDI device to their music software, Live, for the import, editing, and generation of microtonal scales.
I worked closely with the creator of the device, Iftah Gabbai, to help introduce the concept of microtonal musical scales, and to demonstrate the interface and functionality of the device. Crucial to this was a clear connection between sight and sound: Iftah produces music which showcases each feature in real time, together we generate the requisite visuals, and my edit focuses on those features in Microtuner by Ableton.
The response (particularly on YouTube and on Twitter) has been encouraging: