Khyam Allami is an Iraqi – British multi instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist, completing a bachelors degree at soas university. Allami’s main instrument is the oud. A staple of traditional Arabic music, the oud utilises microtonal tuning and frequencies outside of the standard western tuning system. Allami started becoming frustrated when attempting to translate ideas written on the oud into DAWs as he found they weren’t designed for non western styles of music. Often having to use vocal tuning programs to fine tune the Arabic intervals not supported in the software. Because of this Allami was motivated to create his own software. Leimma and Apotome are the two softwares conceived off the back of this idea.

Leimma:

Leimma is a browser based tool created to explore existing and produce your own microtonal scales and tuning systems. It’s supposed to be used in conjunction with Apotome. Users can save and use tuning systems they have created in Ableton filling in the missing piece Allami wished for when producing with western centric music software.

On reflection and use of leimma, the software made it abundantly clear to me how much western music has limited itself. With its logarithmic splitting of an octave into 12 equal temperaments it ignores the frequencies found in between, limiting western music to a select few intervals. In hindsight, growing up playing and going through the piano grading system meant my view of tonal music was very narrow. I was unaware that the western tuning system wasn’t universal or set in stone. Playing around with Leimma meant I created my own intervals and scales, something I found quite liberating as I’ve been aiming to move away from the standard western musical traditions that have been drilled into my subconscious since a child.

Apotome:

Apotome is a browser based generative music environment revolving around octave repeating microtonal systems and their subsets including their scales and modes.

I really enjoyed using the scale I created with Leimma in Apotome. Having less control over the final sonic product’s sound is something I strive towards due to my background in classical piano. I think using generative software encapsulates this urge. On reflection I found using the software like a breath of fresh air. When living in a western world I find it’s easy to forget there are other ways of creating music, or going about producing sound in general. It made me think if other non western cultures had the resources and funding to create their own sound producing software, what would it look like? What would a traditional Filipino Igorot (where my mum is from) look and sound like?