Hallo, Chuckk Hubbard hat gesagt: // Chuckk Hubbard wrote:
On 4/11/06, Frank Barknecht fbar@footils.org wrote:
I used note numbers because basically [tunetof] is just dealing with scales, that have steps. Using note numbers makes it very easy to apply scale-oriented algorithms. And the analogy with mtof will make it easy for users without much experience in dealing with alternate tunings - like myself - to experiment using their mtof-knowledge and even the same patches.
Gotcha. I was still thinking in terms of decimal note numbers, like 60.5, which wouldn't make sense with this.
And it's not supported by [tunetof] anyway: Only integers are accepted, because internally the lookup of the corresponding frequency is carried out with [tabread]. I was thinking of maybe using [tabread4] here at first, but I thought it didn't make sense to assume that tabread4's interpolation would be correct to "slide" from one note to another. So interpolation of intermediate frequencies is up to the user.
Lots of Western-centric musicians boast that the microtonality of more primitive traditions could only have worked in single-line melody, and that Western music, with its more sophisticated tonalities, made these tunings obsolete. I believe that, with computers, the harmonic possibilities opened up by other tunings could dwarf those of 12-tET. But obviously not with keyboards.
Though I'm not a keyboard player (I prefer woodwinds), I admit I've never put much thought into tunings myself, I just used what was available and that was [mtof]. Some things lately have changed my mind. Among these things of course were the discussions here, the other was that I finally finished F. Richard Moore's seminal book "Elements of Computer Music" which in its last chapter (or rather the appendix) deals with tunings in much detail.
Maybe others who just use what is available will now find tunetof easy enough to replace mtof with it. ;)
It also is useful to use with equal tempered traditinal tuning of course. One nice possibility is to use it as an appregiator. If the scale used internally is for example a maj7 chord with just 4 notes, then [random 4] will play only the notes from this chord in random order. Sending a "scale" with a different chord or changing the root note will then change the chord or transpose it. This is very handy sometimes and allows very compact patches. (Note to self: Make some example patches for this.)
Ciao
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__