YouTubers, podcasters & Twitch streamers dedicated specifically to xenharmony and microtones
A thriving community of composers, theorists, instrumentalists, and obsessives has been pushing well beyond 12-tone equal temperament for decades — and lately, YouTube has become one of the best places to fall down that rabbit hole. Whether you’re new to the idea that equal divisions of the octave can come in flavours other than twelve, or you’re already fluent in regular temperament theory, there’s a channel here for you.
Here are ten creators worth an afternoon (or a week) of binge watching.
1. L4mplight
Channel: youtube.com/@L4MPLIGHT
L4mplight is a Japanese composer and conlanger — someone who creates constructed languages — and their work sits at one of the most unusual crossroads the modern microtonal scene has produced. Tuning choices and invented phonologies inform one another here, with 41-tone equal temperament and just intonation running through pieces that double as linguistic and musical self-portraits. Their self-introductory composition “Caftaphata” is a good place to start: it’s eerie, melodically inventive, and deeply personal in a way that transcends the language barrier. L4mplight is a reminder that the global, internet-native microtonal community now extends far beyond its historical centres in North America and Europe, and that the reasons artists are drawn to alternative tuning systems keep multiplying.
2. Levi McClain
Channel: youtube.com/@LeviMcClain
Levi McClain is a Pennsylvania-based bassist, composer, music theorist, and content creator who has become one of the most effective popularisers of microtonal ideas for general audiences. His signature project frames 31-tone equal temperament not as an exotic departure from Western music but as its natural extension — a system that preserves and enriches familiar harmonic logic while adding neutral thirds, septimal intervals, and the diesis (the small interval by which 31-equal distinguishes between, for instance, C♯ and D♭, collapsed to unison in standard tuning). His video essays range from accessible introductions to 31-tone harmony to investigations of “double modes” — a compositional framework for navigating 31-EDO’s expanded modal resources. He also brings a cross-disciplinary sensibility, drawing freely on math, science, and engineering to explain why these systems work the way they do. His TikTok presence has additionally introduced microtonal ideas to audiences who had never heard the word before.
3. Lumatone Keyboard
Channel: youtube.com/@LumatoneKeyboard
The Lumatone is a 280-key isomorphic keyboard with individually RGB-lit hexagonal keys, built from the ground up for players who want to explore microtonality and non-standard tunings. The official YouTube channel is part product showcase, part inspiration engine: it features performances in 19-tone, 31-tone, and 53-tone equal temperament and beyond, demonstrations of the instrument’s fully programmable mapping system, and an ever-growing library of community content. Because isomorphic layouts mean a given chord or scale shape stays the same across all keys regardless of transposition, the Lumatone has become a favourite tool for composers who want to move between tuning systems without relearning finger patterns. Even if you have no plans to buy one, the channel is a vivid, colourful window into what microtonal keyboard performance can look — and sound — like.
4. Lumi — Music & Theory (Frostburn)
Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCPzZoMs2YRIOfgraYQutXaA
Lumi Pakkanen — known online as Frostburn — is a Finnish software engineer with a Master’s degree in theoretical physics and a deep passion for xenharmonic music. They are the lead developer of Scale Workshop, one of the most widely used free browser-based tools for designing, visualising, and exporting microtonal scales. On their YouTube channel, tutorials on Scale Workshop sit alongside original music, often exploring unusual constructs like fifth-equivalent interval classes and custom notations. The combination of rigorous theoretical grounding and practical toolbuilding makes Lumi’s channel essential for anyone who wants to move from listening to microtonality to actually making it.
5. Microtonal Maverick
Channel: youtube.com/@MicrotonalMaverick
Microtonal Maverick applies xenharmonic tuning systems directly to industrial techno, blues, and ambient electronic music, with a particular focus on 22-EDO — treated as a “super-Pythagorean” temperament with distinctive intervals like the 9:7 major third — alongside 17-EDO and 26-EDO. The creator performs on a custom Oni half-fretless baritone guitar built specifically for 22-EDO, a Lumatone isomorphic keyboard, and hardware synths including the Sequential Pro 3 and Hydrasynth. Watching the live-looping performances gives you a direct, practical look at how these equal temperamentsfunction in a modern rock and electronic context, and the educational intro videos — covering everything from scale construction to rank-2 temperament theory — make the channel useful for theorists as well as listeners.
6. Now and Xen
Channel: youtube.com/channel/UCnmYNMpemAIq8DnK5HJ9gsA
Now and Xen began as a podcast co-founded by electronic musician Sevish and composer Stephen Weigel, and its YouTube presence brings the audio to life with visuals. The show’s scope is genuinely encyclopaedic: episodes cover everything from just intonation lattices and regular temperament theory to conversations with microtonal trumpet players, algorithmic composers, overtone singers, and inventors of bespoke instruments. Guests have included Tolgahan Çoğulu on his adjustable microtonal guitar, Levi McClain on 31-EDO harmony, and L4mplight on the connections between tuning and constructed language. If you want a single channel that gives you the broadest possible picture of what the contemporary microtonal and xenharmonic community is actually doing, this is it.
7. Stephen Weigel
Channel: youtube.com/@stephenweigel
Stephen Weigel is a composer and performer based in Indianapolis with a Master’s in Music Composition from Ball State University, where he founded the Xenharmonic Music Alliance. His YouTube channel is a treasure trove of microtonal covers, original compositions, and theoretical deep dives, and he is particularly celebrated as a xenharmonic transcription specialist — recreating familiar pieces in tunings like 22-EDO, 19-EDO, and various meantone and non-octave systems. His cover of Jvke’s “Golden Hour” in a non-standard tuning became a popular entry point for many new listeners. Weigel is also a tireless community builder — his work co-hosting Now and Xen and organising microtonal events has helped shape what the contemporary scene looks like.
8. Tolgahan Çoğulu
Channel: youtube.com/@tolgahancogulu
Tolgahan Çoğulu is a Turkish classical guitarist and Professor at Istanbul Technical University’s Turkish Music State Conservatory, where he founded the world’s first microtonal guitar department in 2014. He is the designer of the Adjustable Microtonal Guitar, an instrument whose frets are fully movable under each string, allowing the player to realise maqam scales, just intonation intervals, and a vast range of other tuning systems without resorting to a fretless neck. He won first prize at the prestigious Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech in 2014, and has performed and taught in over 34 countries. His YouTube channel showcases performances of Anatolian folk music, Ottoman classical music, and commissioned contemporary works, all filtered through a microtonal lens that bridges Eastern and Western musical traditions. If you want to hear what non-12-equal guitar can actually sound like in a concert setting, this is your channel.
9. Xenpilled (Stalefleas)
Channel: youtube.com/@xenpilled
Xenpilled — also known as Stalefleas — represents the DIY, self-documenting spirit of the online microtonal community at its most compelling. The channel chronicles a genuine journey: a musician who discovered microtonal music, became thoroughly “pilled” on it (hence the name), and started publishing new compositions regularly while livestreaming the learning process six nights a week. The work spans piano composition, songwriting, and production, with a focus on equal temperaments that sit outside the familiar twelve. There’s something refreshing about watching someone figure this out in real time rather than presenting polished expertise — it makes the whole field feel more accessible, and the music is genuinely interesting in its own right.
10. Zhea Erose
Channel: youtube.com/@ZheaErose
Zhea Erose (Amelia Huff) is a Los Angeles-based composer, theorist, and performer who has developed some of the most distinctive and original theoretical ideas in the contemporary microtonal scene. Her concept of primodality treats each prime number as carrying its own unique timbral and harmonic identity — a departure from the more conventional focus on small just intonation ratios like 4:5:6:7. She combines this with her “near-equal just intonation” (NEJI) approach, producing tunings that preserve the gestalt quality of high-prime harmony while remaining close to equal-step grids. Her albums, including the 24-minute title track of Wxtchcrxft, are genuinely cinematic and immersive — dream-bass electronic music that uses just intonation not as a theoretical exercise but as a direct expressive tool. She also runs the widely respected TransVoiceLessons channel, demonstrating a breadth of educational commitment that extends well beyond music theory. Her YouTube and Bandcamp output is essential listening for anyone interested in where microtonal theory is heading.
Where to go from here
If any of these creators spark an interest in the underlying theory, the Xenharmonic Wiki is the community’s primary reference resource, covering everything from EDOs and MOS scales to regular temperament theory and historical tunings. The Now and Xen podcast and the Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server are also excellent places to find community and ask questions. Happy tuning.
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