On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Michael Beeler <mikebeeler@verizon.net> wrote:
And this musing -- Given that math precludes perfect tuning, are there engineering work-arounds other than equal temperament and n-note scales? Perhaps vibrato, besides being an embellishment, also obscures the note so that it sounds better in conjunction with other notes? Taking that further, perhaps there is a sounding-good function that gives the best frequency perturbations for all of the notes sounding at a given moment. (Psychology experiment opportunity here -- do musicians already make subtle adjustments like this?. Might it depend on previous note and next note? Weighted by the musical "importance" of the current notes?)
If so, electronic instruments could re-tune themselves based on what the current chord is, both its own and the notes other instruments or people are sounding. Real-time vocal pitch correction already exists, suggesting this is possible. Would the result sound more pleasant, or always slightly off?
This piece dynamically adjusts the timbre of the instrument to make each chord sound consonant. http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/mp3s/three_ears.html He's got lots of other "weird" music, including non-12-tet scales and other things: http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/otherperson/all_mp3s.html I particularly enjoyed "Truth on a Bus", written in a 19-tet scale. -- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com