source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 14:23:20 -0800 Subject: A naive question From: jpff@maths.bath.ac.uk Message written at 02 Dec 1996 17:11:11 -0500 I have been giving a little thought to specifying tuning systems within a software system. At present I am limiting myself to equal temprament scales. It seems to me that there are three parameters to specify the scale, and two (or one) to specify frequency required. At present my operator take as arguments 1. The number of equal divisions (eg 12 -- sorry 19) 2. The interval to be divided (eg 2 for octave, 3 for 12th) 3. A base frequency My question is about the base frequency. At present I am toying with either making this "octave" zero, which suggests in the system I use (where octave 8 contains middle C) make is 1.021975, or alternatively decreeing that octave 8 is the reference point, and so 8.0 is always 261.62561 (or there abouts). My first question is what have a failed to realise? Is the reference freguency really obvious and i have failed to understand? My second question is how useful is the large interval other than 2 and 3? I have this feeling that a two octave repeating scheme could be interesting? I am using the selection in the format oct.pitch which assumes 100ET or less. Does anyone (apart from me) ever think about 100ET? Any advice appreciated. ==John ff Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 3 Dec 1996 01:54 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA27963; Tue, 3 Dec 1996 01:56:02 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA27923 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id QAA16966; Mon, 2 Dec 1996 16:55:59 -0800 Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 16:55:59 -0800 Message-Id: <961203005410_71670.2576_HHB60-1@CompuServe.COM> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu