# Scales Menu Function: Everything about scales, in the order you meet them: the public gallery, your own list, the Quick Load assignments and the builder. Like every menu with tabs, it opens on the tab you last used; the first time, on the gallery. ### Scale Gallery Function: The shared collection every Neotone can see. It holds scales that players have chosen to publish and scales contributed by handpan makers. You can search it, load a scale straight onto the instrument, or add one to My Scales to keep it. ### Scale count Function: How many scales the gallery holds. While a search is active it shows how many match. ### Search scales Function: Filters the gallery as you type, matching against the text of each scale card. ### Scale card Function: One scale. The card shows the scale's name with a play icon, its tuning and transposition when they differ from standard, the number of notes and the notes themselves. Show more opens the unique notes, the scale family, the scales it fits with and similar scales, and the harmony used to build it, with a note when filters or a pure body sound are part of it. #### Play Function: Plays the scale's notes in the browser so you can hear it before loading it. #### Load Function: Loads the scale onto the instrument. The instrument is muted while it loads and plays a note when it is ready. #### Duplicate Function: Makes your own copy of the scale in My Scales, after asking you to confirm. The copy is yours to edit. #### Public gallery Function: Shown on your own scales. Switched on, the scale is published to the gallery for every player; switched off, it is withdrawn. #### My scales Function: Switched on, the gallery scale is added to your My Scales list so you can load it from there and assign it to Quick Load. Switched off, it is removed from your list. The scale itself stays in the gallery. ### My Scales  Function: Your own list of scales: the ones you have built, copies you have made, and gallery scales you have added. The heading shows how many there are, and the search box filters them as you type. Each scale is a card, the same card as in the [[4-3-scales-menu#Scale card|Scale card]], with Load, Edit, Duplicate and the two switches; Edit opens the scale in Build scale, and Edit and Duplicate appear only on scales you own. The links above the list switch between this list, Quick Load and the scale builder. This menu lists all the available scales you can select from. To change a scale, you can use Quick Load (hold down the dome and a tonefield simultaneously for 2 seconds) or when the instrument is online you can also change scales manually through the digital interface in this menu (by pressing Load on the scale's card). If you are using Quick Load to change the scale and you want to add a new scale to a tonefield remember to edit it and save it accordingly under Quick Load. The instrument should be online to update this information. ### Download scale! Function: Appears when a scale you have loaded is not yet stored on the instrument. Click it to start the download. The download takes 10 to 60 minutes depending on your internet connection; leave the instrument on the charger and online. Turning the instrument off skips the download, and it resumes the next time the instrument is turned off while connected. You can download a new scale for your instrument. The download will be completed in 10-60 minutes, depending on your internet connection. Please leave NEOTONE on the charger and stay online. ### Build scale Function: Where a scale is made. You choose each note and place it on a tonefield, set which tonefield carries the root, and tune or transpose the whole scale before saving it. #### Custom scale editing Function: Builds a scale from nothing. You pick each note and place it on a tonefield, set which tonefield carries the root, and choose whether the root is spelled with a sharp or a flat, which then decides how the rest of the scale is spelled. Besides playing the live scales you have the possibility to create custom scales. For this click the “add custom scale” link at the top of the My Scales menu. The first step in assembling the notes of your custom scale is to select the preferred note and octave number from the above note and octave selection. If you selected the preferred note and octave number you have to put them in their preferred places on the instrument. You can do this by clicking on the preferred tonefield or mutant tonefield on the blueprint of the instrument, which you see below the note and octave selection. Also, do not forget to give a name to the scale that you are assembling, a good custom scale name can be helpful later on.  Under the scale’s name you can find a Pitch and a Tune slider. These allows you to fine-tune your scales individually.  Tune sets the standard A3 reference pitch of the scale between 415 and 466 Hz, or to Global to follow the global tuning setting. Pitch adjusts the tuning of the scale in semitone steps, up to ± 12 semitones. Once you are done with assembling the notes of the custom scale, the next step is to set the harmony of the scale. Press the “Save & Go To Set Harmony” button below the blueprint of the instrument to begin the harmony setting of the custom scale.   For the best results, try to find the source samples that fit together the most harmoniously. You can choose multiple source samples for each individual note. Each source sample brings different harmony to the final result, depending on its original scale characteristic (Minor/major, etc). For example, on the following image you can see the source sample options for the G4 note of the Onoleo scale:  In many cases, the harmony of the custom scale will not be perfect by choosing source samples at the current frequency. In such cases, feel free to choose a lower or a higher sample, the instrument automatically pitches the frequency to the connected note (in this case, G4). Starting with firmware version 5.7, you can listen to the harmony of the scale in a live preview. You can start this with the live harmony test button at the bottom. By pressing this, a preview (not so detailed and sensitive) of your scale will load in, which you can try out and test immediately. If you are not satisfied with the harmony, adjust the source samples step by step, tonefield by tonefield. These changes will be heard on the instrument in a few seconds. If you choose these sources well, the final result can be similar to the beautiful, cohesive sound of a live scale. From firmware version 6.9, under the Scale’s name there is a new button that can be pressed, called Harmony Wizard. When pressed, this function analyzes the harmonic content of each note, and the whole scale. If an irregularity is detected, it selects a more suitable sample. ### Set harmony Function: Chooses which recorded instrument each note is played from. Every note can draw on a different source recording, and the choice decides how well the notes sit together. The Harmony Wizard makes these choices for you. #### Note sources Tooltip: For the best results, use the samples collected by the Harmony Wizard. If needed, fine-tune the selected samples afterward. You can also apply gain correction using the sliders. Function: Chooses which recorded instrument each note is taken from. Every note in a scale can draw on a different source recording, and the combination decides how well the notes sit together. #### Harmony Wizard Function: Chooses a source recording for every note in a scale at once. It scores the candidate recordings for each note against the rest of the scale, picks the combination that sits together best, and then rates the result so you can see whether the scale is harmonically sound before loading it. It can be run on a whole scale or only on the notes that have no source yet, and it leaves curated gallery scales untouched. #### Before Harmony Wizard Function: The state a new scale is in before its sources have been chosen, when every note still comes from whatever recording was nearest in pitch.  #### After Harmony Wizard Function: The state after the wizard has chosen sources for you. It analyses the harmonic content of each note and of the scale as a whole, and replaces any source that sits badly against the others.  After setting harmony, it is possible that some notes need gain (volume) correction too. You can set these with the sliders on the right side of each note.  When you are done with selecting and adjusting the source samples, test how harmoniously the body sounds fit the custom scale. You have the option to choose whether you would like to use all notes for the body tones or only a single note, resulting in a more static, percussive sound. ### Scale filters Function: Shapes the sound of a scale after it is built, by attenuating frequencies that do not belong to it. Turning the filters on lengthens loading time, so they are switched off by default. #### Scale filters on Tooltip: Notice: the scale filters increase the scale loading time! (Reload needed after activate/deactivate) Function: Switches the four scale filters on or off together. They are off by default because filtering lengthens the time a scale takes to load, and the scale must be reloaded for a change to take effect. #### Dissonance filter Tooltip: Attenuates the dissonant frequencies that do not fit the custom scale. (Reload needed) Tooltip (orig): Reduce unwanted ringing and dissonant frequencies Function: Quietens the frequencies in each recording that do not belong to your scale. Slightly dissonant content is attenuated by up to 25 dB and strongly dissonant content by up to 45 dB, at the maximum setting. Attenuates the dissonant frequencies that do not fit the custom scale. #### Harmony filter Tooltip: Attenuates the overtones related to the samples' fundamental frequencies. (Reload needed) Tooltip (orig): Reduce harmony frequencies (octave / fifth) Function: Quietens the octave, fifth and fourth that each sample carries alongside its fundamental, by up to 25 dB. Use it when a scale sounds thick because every note is bringing its own harmony with it. Attenuates the overtones related to the sample’s fundamental frequencies. #### Upper octave filter Tooltip: Attenuates the octave frequencies one octave above the fundamental. (Reload needed) Tooltip (orig): Adjust the tonal brightness and presence of the octave overtone (12 semitones above the fundamental) *The original row (sound_designs 194) names this control Octave brightness.* Function: Quietens the octave above each note by up to 8 dB, and the two-octave harmonic a little less. It darkens the scale without touching the notes themselves. Attenuates the octave frequencies one octave above the fundamental. #### Upper fifth filter Tooltip: Attenuates the fifth frequencies one octave above the fundamental. (Reload needed) Tooltip (orig): Enhance or soften the shimmer of the compound fifth harmonic for richer character *The original row (sound_designs 195) names this control Fifth Color.* Function: Quietens the fifth an octave above each note by up to 8 dB, softening the shimmer that harmonic adds. Attenuates the fifth frequencies one octane above the fundamental. #### Scale Filters Function: The page holding the four filters. All four are applied at half strength on the ding, so the deepest note keeps more of its natural weight than the side notes. Once you’re done with the setting the harmonies, you will be guided to the Filters page  On this page you can apply various filters to the scale A reload is needed for the changes to apply. The Scale Filters on button turns on/off the filters. ### Body sound Function: Decides where the wooden body's sound comes from. Instead of the recorded body tones, the body can be built from the frequencies of your own scale, so it never clashes with the notes you are playing. #### Pure body sound Tooltip: If you find the original body tones unsuitable, you can switch to an automatically generated body sound built from the frequencies of the custom scale - avoiding any potential dissonance. (Doesn't work during the live harmony test) Function: Builds the wooden body's sound from the frequencies of your own scale instead of the recorded body tones, so the body cannot clash with the notes you are playing. It has no effect during the live harmony test. ### Quick Load Function: Puts your scales on the instrument itself. Each scale you map to a tonefield can then be loaded by holding the ding and that tonefield, with no phone or computer connected. This is how scales are changed on stage. #### Enable hotkeys *firmware 6.8+.* Function: Switches Quick Load on or off at the instrument. With it off, holding the ding and a tonefield does not change scale. #### HOTKEY editing Function: Assigns a scale from My Scales to each tonefield, so it can be loaded by holding the ding and that tonefield with nothing connected. Up to 18 scales can be assigned on a Mutant instrument, nine standard tonefields plus nine mutant ones. When you are editing the Quick Load combinations of the instrument you can set yourself an easy, offline way to swap between the scales of the instrument. In the My Scales menu, select Quick Load at the top of the page to begin editing the combinations. Using Quick Load is very easy: you just need to press the dome and one of the tonefields at the same time for 2 seconds. Following this, the loading of a scale will begin. Each tonefield can bear a separate scale which you can edit and set in the Quick Load submenu. All together you can assign nine scales, each for one from the nine tonefields of the instrument. These scales can be both live scales and custom scales. From firmware version 6.9 you can assign up to 18 different scales with Quick Load, using the standard tonefields plus nine additional combinations provided by the mutant tonefields. The pitch fields on the right side of the submenu make you available to set the tuning of the scale assigned to a tonefield. You can pitch them up or down, going half a note with every set, both ways. This pitching is practical, because this way it is possible to duplicate scales with only half-note (or more) differences and assign them to Quick Load combinations. Also, from firmware version 6.9 there is a button that enables or deactivates Quick Load