KVR Audio

jimmymus · Post by **jimmymus** » Sun May 25, 2008 3:05 pm

I need something to get a firmer grasp of the fundamentals of microtonality. When it comes to standard tunings, I have a clue what equal temperament is, but I see things like "the 2:1" ratio and I don't know what that means. So I guess what I'm looking for is a great book on the mathematics of music, which implicitly would allow me to understand microtonality better.

Thanks!

Music Engineer · Post by **Music Engineer** » Sun May 25, 2008 3:14 pm

http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/~bensondj/h ... music.html

an excellent book available as free pdf-download. chapters 4-6 are about tuning etc. things like 2:1 mean a frequency ratio: one frequency is twice as high as the other one - an interval which we call an 'octave'.

Musicologo · Post by **Musicologo** » Sun May 25, 2008 5:08 pm

I've downloaded it and this seems a huge discovery for free! Some of those things I already worked at university but others more complex not really. This is a very interesting guide to keep with me! Many thanks for this.

Music Engineer · Post by **Music Engineer** » Sun May 25, 2008 6:11 pm

Musicologo wrote:I've downloaded it and this seems a huge discovery for free! Some of those things I already worked at university but others more complex not really. This is a very interesting guide to keep with me! Many thanks for this.

likewise i felt, when i found it back in the day

tamahome · Post by **tamahome** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:09 am

David b doty's just intonation book http://www.amazon.com/just-intonation-p ... 685&sr=1-2

You can also get it from http://justintonation.net

Here's an online intro:

http://www.kylegann.com/tuning.html

H.Noury · Post by **H.Noury** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:10 pm

You can try microtonality with my VST "Sound Font Lab". The demo is free, the full version coasts 2 euros. Look at the explanation on the documentation first : it's so basic!

But in fact, when I try microtonality, I am often disturbed. Balance sensations and auditive ones are the 2 in the internal ear. Does it have any importance? I have many times tried new temperaments. Sometimes, I feel bad after!!

In asian musics, microtonality is a ornementation of a classical scale.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:59 pm

Danielou, Alain
1968 The Ragas of Northern Indian Music. London: Barrie & Rockliff.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:04 pm

H.Noury wrote:
But in fact, when I try microtonality, I am often disturbed. Balance sensations and auditive ones are the 2 in the internal ear. Does it have any importance? I have many times tried new temperaments. Sometimes, I feel bad after!!

Are you working with equal divisions? Such structures are not the most natural ones in acoustics.

H.Noury · Post by **H.Noury** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:53 pm

Well, I've tried different things.

The microtuner of the Sound Font Lab is good, but I have just realised a "grand version" of my "Modeliser". In that version, when you push a knob, the synth samples the last note played, and all the keyboard becomes microtonal around this note (like a tonal zooming if you want to), and when you stop to push, the keyboard becomes normal again.

I do not distribute this version for now, I have just realised it and I want to try it first : maybe a new music is around there!

When I felt a sick, it was an "anykind structure", there was not any order maybe.

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:33 pm

It's weird, thinking about the interrelation between hearing, how the ear is constructed, and what constructions it might accept more than others. Complex subject.

Higher frequency/closer together, a pyramidic structure.

Resplendence · Post by **Resplendence** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:25 am

jancivil wrote:It's weird, thinking about the interrelation between hearing, how the ear is constructed, and what constructions it might accept more than others. Complex subject. Higher frequency/closer together, a pyramidic structure.

It's also a lot to do with with our cultural expectations and how we are genetically programmed to classify what sounds right.

//Daniel

jancivil · Post by **jancivil** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:39 pm

It is, cultural expectations are huge.

People are now really realizing that more, as there is world music available now at an unprecedented scale. Used to be you get so many from European musical culture deciding that this, or that, Other's music just wasn't musical, because it didn't fit into expectations, which might be really provincial. Which is unfortunate, because these tended to be the sort of critic which published the most.

Genetically programmed, I think you do get some genetic memory after some generations.
I've become averse to European concert music, which never especially thrilled me unless it was slightly exotic by some referent.

I don't know how much of that's me being objective or how much more (less?) there is to it than that.

Microtonality book?