source file: mills3.txt Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 01:37:12 +0200 Subject: theories From: "kris peck" > As I often find myself doing, I'd like to second Neil's most recent > request: I too think it would be great, if somebody can spare a half hour > or so, to briefly list the essential underlying concepts, and summarize at > least some of the discussion that has gone down about them. It would appear that this list needs a good FAQ on some of the topics brought up. It should contain definitions of basic terminology and general descriptions of the most common types of structures and scale generation techniques. From reading this list the past few months and browsing the archives, it appears that many of the same topics get rehashed over and over and over and over. Some of the "tuning gurus" that inhabit the list are surprisingly patient in explaining things repeatedly, but it seems that they could save themselves some time by compiling these things into one good document to stick onto someone's web page. Obviously entire books could be written on combination-product sets, etc. (and someone should do so!) but at least some basic groundwork should be done for referring commonly asked questions. For example: Why use equal temperament rather than JI (or vice versa)? What is prime limit? "" "" odd-limit? What's a comma? How is meantone tuned? "" "" well-temperament? What does MOS mean? Where do I find information on tuning my synth/MIDI/guitar/piano/bagpipes to scale X? What's a harmonic series and what does it have to do with tuning? What's a hexany/dekany/hebdomekontany, etc.? I suppose if a really good definitive FAQ were compiled, 95% of the discussion would disappear and the list would die. Or maybe some of the redundancy could be eliminated and the resulting discussions would be more interesting with everyone (who takes the effort to read and understand the FAQ) on an equal footing. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Denis.Atadan@mvs.udel.edu Subject: Tape Swap Takes a Holiday PostedDate: 30-07-97 20:55:40 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 31-07-97 16:42:35-31-07-97 16:42:37,31-07-97 16:41:22-31-07-97 16:41:22 DeliveredDate: 31-07-97 16:41:22 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA v1.1 (385.6 5-6-1997)) with SMTP id C12564E5.0028060C; Thu, 31 Jul 1997 09:17:11 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA25610; Wed, 30 Jul 1997 20:55:40 +0200 Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 20:55:40 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA25612 Received: (qmail 13602 invoked from network); 30 Jul 1997 18:51:59 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 30 Jul 1997 18:51:59 -0000 Message-Id: <199707301849.OAA01509@copland.udel.edu> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu