Semitones help please.

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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If you have 100 equal divisions of the octave, you're not going to be dealing with semitones... or TET. Can't have it both ways, I'm afraid. Of course, that might not matter for your application (it had better not).

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I think I will just divide 100 by 12 then for the 12 notes.

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I vaguely suspected something unusual here, which is why I tried to point to intonation.

Equally divided systems are just not terrifically musical in my view, they subvert nature for a symmetry that doesn't exist naturally.

The Arabs, I think, did the most work in divvying up octaves, that is until the 20th century. there, one might look to Harry Partch and then, Lou Harrison. Lot of this work isn't purely theoretical, it's about trying to describe with numbers the vocal characteristics or the behavior of strings in actual practice.

the original post mentions 'hosts' as if an imagined application for digital music, hence my interest.
I think it'd be a really cool thing, if you designed it towards something that has an idea behind it that isn't arbitrary, which 100 equal divisions of an octave does seems to be.

Look at the overtone series, it's pyramidic in structure, for a hint.


I may be talking to myself, no prob tho, worth a shot.

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Thanks jancivil, what I am doing is nothing that fancy I am writing some scripts for a program I am skinning. The users (djs) wouldn't need that level of complexity. I like to see a vst or audio host offer these differnt types of scales though maybe given someone else an idea there.

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Dunks wrote:Thanks jancivil, what I am doing is nothing that fancy I am writing some scripts for a program I am skinning. The users (djs) wouldn't need that level of complexity. I like to see a vst or audio host offer these differnt types of scales though maybe given someone else an idea there.
Oh now i think I see: the ability to move the global pitch during a mix, more or less gradually.

this was for general edumacashum of the populace, anyhow, part of my global domination scheme.
I need to come up with a more meme-like approach tho. ;)


absynth has a whole list of tunings right off the bat these days, and is user-definable, btw.

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jancivil wrote:Oh now i think I see: the ability to move the global pitch during a mix, more or less gradually.
Wow, a whole octave up... label the control thusly:

Human 0% |___|___|___|___| 100% Chipmunk

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well, I wouldn't be an advocate for this behavior either. ha! let's go tarnce bashing now, hey.

I almost said 'if the shoe fits...'

wait I just did,
sorry.

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Oh, I'm in favor of people making tools that do what they want to, whether it makes sense for my music or not. No criticism from me, just slightly... bemused, I suppose.

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Its more for this type of thing not tarnce.


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when I was little, you had to work with or around chipmunkism no matter what you were going for, if you used a sampler.

[or the go'a'uld effect, in the other direction]

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Dunks wrote:Its more for this type of thing not tarnce.

well, that is strictly tonal, chordal, and your 100 will have to be parsed according to the rules of twelve, everything will have to factor twelve somehow, as coherent landing points if nothing else.

do you see what i'm saying? 100 isn't a factor of 12. nothing will sound in tune except for 0 and 100.
you'll have to scramble and skew everything in between to fit.

Twelve-tone equal temperament:

/ 12 equal parts, the ratio of frequencies between two adjacent semitones is the twelfth root of two:

r = \sqrt[12]{2} \approx 1.05946309:1


is what the deal you're dealing in.

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So putting down exactly what my calculator spits out is the the best way to go?

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I'd say so, get yo calculatah out, do tha math

12th root of: two through eleven, that's the only way I see.

that will give you the basic 'arrival points',

actually my brain hurts now, trying to imagine the in between stuff.


I'm at my point of incompetence now. 12th root of your 100 divided by 1 thru 12, then. [each 8 1/3 part ???] hey, we havin fun yet.

woot!

ask someone who finished high school! yikes.

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On this page there is a table comparing intervals :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament

On the table there's 'Decimal value in 12-TET'. Could I not use this instead?

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Dunks wrote:It may seem strange, I am trying to map semitones onto a pitch slider. The slider has 100 steps 0-100, 100 being twice as fast as 0.
Like the guy says when asked for directions: "If you want to get there you don't really want to start from here..."

O.K... if my addled memory serves me right, it's a bit like compound interest.

Root=1.00000000
up 1 semi=1.00000000*1.05946309=1.05946309 (the twelfth root of two thing)
up 2 semi=1.05946309*1.05946309=1.12246203
up 3 semi=1.12246203*1.05946309...

What's with this 0=>100 thing? Is it a physical device with 100 discrete steps?

Heh, I see you're about 15 miles away from me, how's the weather down by the sea? It's fookin' shite up here on t' moors. :wink:

Hope my bad math helps. :)

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