It Works!!!!
Two new things on Thumtronics’ website:
1. Online Thummer: an online implementation of the Thummer’s note-layout, driven by your computer’s keyboard (Windows only).
2. Dynamic Tuning, Mark I: A Max/MSP implementation of Dynamic Tuning & Timbres (DT&T), also driven by your computer keyboard.
[Added 23rd June: The latest version of the main Max/MSF file, which is undergoing rapid evolution, can be found here. Use it instead of the .MSF file that's in the above .zip file.]
A simple test of Dynamic Tuning is as follows:
- Set the width of the tempered perfect fifth to 700 cents (12-tet).
- Press the M & W keys at the same time. These two notes are the major third and diminished fourth of QWERTY’s B key, respectively (the actual pitches don’t matter). In 12-tet, they are the same pitch.
- While the notes are sounding, slide the tuning slider up to 702 cents.
In 12-tet, the pitches sounded by pressing the QWERTY keyboard’s M & W are the same – but in any other tuning, they aren’t. When the tuning is at 701.7 cents (call it 702), the two notes are discernibly different. In the schismatic temperament, you’d play “major” triads with the diminished fourth instead of the major third, because with a harmonic timbre, at that tuning the diminished fourth’s fundamental lines up perfectly with the root’s fifth partial (ignoring an octave or two), maximizing consonance.
But this app’s timbres aren’t harmonic. The timbre’s third partial lines up exactly with the tempered perfect fifth, whatever width you set the perfect fifth to be (a couple of octaves aside) – thereby eliminating the Pythagorean comma from both the tuning and the timbre. Likewise, the fifth partial has been adjusted to align with the major third all across the tuning continuum – so the syntonic comma has been eliminated, too, from both tuning and timbre.
What’s going on here? The background is discussed here, which is a draft of an article recently accepted for publication by MIT’s Computer Music Journal, and here.
Another interesting test is to play the chord progression from Pachelbel's Canon while changing the tuning dynamically (rather like Herman Miller’s Warped Canon, but dynamic, and timbre-adjusted). I found that it’s easiest to work out the note-pattern on the Online Thummer, then, having understood/memorized it, play it on the Dynamic Tuning test-app.
The additive synthesis algorithm used in this bare-bones synth is just a toy. We expect, in future, to be able to adjust the partials of any synth's output in real time, so that electronic musicians will have complete freedom of timbre within Dynamic Tuning.
This is all pretty bare-bones, of course, but it shows that Dynamic Tuning actually WORKS.
Whee! :-)
1. Online Thummer: an online implementation of the Thummer’s note-layout, driven by your computer’s keyboard (Windows only).
2. Dynamic Tuning, Mark I: A Max/MSP implementation of Dynamic Tuning & Timbres (DT&T), also driven by your computer keyboard.
[Added 23rd June: The latest version of the main Max/MSF file, which is undergoing rapid evolution, can be found here. Use it instead of the .MSF file that's in the above .zip file.]
A simple test of Dynamic Tuning is as follows:
- Set the width of the tempered perfect fifth to 700 cents (12-tet).
- Press the M & W keys at the same time. These two notes are the major third and diminished fourth of QWERTY’s B key, respectively (the actual pitches don’t matter). In 12-tet, they are the same pitch.
- While the notes are sounding, slide the tuning slider up to 702 cents.
In 12-tet, the pitches sounded by pressing the QWERTY keyboard’s M & W are the same – but in any other tuning, they aren’t. When the tuning is at 701.7 cents (call it 702), the two notes are discernibly different. In the schismatic temperament, you’d play “major” triads with the diminished fourth instead of the major third, because with a harmonic timbre, at that tuning the diminished fourth’s fundamental lines up perfectly with the root’s fifth partial (ignoring an octave or two), maximizing consonance.
But this app’s timbres aren’t harmonic. The timbre’s third partial lines up exactly with the tempered perfect fifth, whatever width you set the perfect fifth to be (a couple of octaves aside) – thereby eliminating the Pythagorean comma from both the tuning and the timbre. Likewise, the fifth partial has been adjusted to align with the major third all across the tuning continuum – so the syntonic comma has been eliminated, too, from both tuning and timbre.
What’s going on here? The background is discussed here, which is a draft of an article recently accepted for publication by MIT’s Computer Music Journal, and here.
Another interesting test is to play the chord progression from Pachelbel's Canon while changing the tuning dynamically (rather like Herman Miller’s Warped Canon, but dynamic, and timbre-adjusted). I found that it’s easiest to work out the note-pattern on the Online Thummer, then, having understood/memorized it, play it on the Dynamic Tuning test-app.
The additive synthesis algorithm used in this bare-bones synth is just a toy. We expect, in future, to be able to adjust the partials of any synth's output in real time, so that electronic musicians will have complete freedom of timbre within Dynamic Tuning.
This is all pretty bare-bones, of course, but it shows that Dynamic Tuning actually WORKS.
Whee! :-)
Labels: Dynamic Tuning, Online Thummer, Pachelbel's Canon
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