[CAUT] HIstorical temperaments and compensation

Kent Swafford kswafford at gmail.com
Tue Feb 3 08:10:13 PST 2009


Of course. Just as you say, "some instruments simply can't render it as
intended." Agreed. And some can, so blanket condemnations are out-of-date,
IMO.
Kent


On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Mark Schecter <mark at schecterpiano.com>wrote:

> Kent and Jon,
>
> If I may, possibly Jon was referring to the fact that digital sound sources
> implement tunability to varying precision, such that no matter how perfect
> your model, some instruments simply can't render it as intended. This is
> clear if you look at the chart here: http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com/
>
> -Mark
>
> Kent Swafford wrote:
>
>> I think the time is past where it is OK to automatically insult the
>> quality of digital instruments; digital instruments can be quite good.
>>
>> I have posted here musical passages created with 3 of the best digital
>> instruments. Some knew right away they were listening to digitals, but many
>> did not. Case closed, as far as I am concerned.
>>
>> I was responding to an inquiry about whether it is possible to demonstrate
>> various temperaments easily with modern sophisticated electronic gear. It
>> is.
>>
>> Indeed the Scala file format is open, and one can create one's own tuning
>> files, thus making it possible to control the quality and accuracy of the
>> tunings, not to mention the ability to create tuning files of tunings of
>> one's own devising. In other words, in creating a demo of various tunings we
>> could be in control of the tunings and not blindly dependent upon
>> questionable tunings built in by others.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>>
>> Kent
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 6:28 AM, Jon Page <jonpage at comcast.net <mailto:
>> jonpage at comcast.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     >So yes, this is most definitely "out there already".
>>
>>    I haven't listened to a new digital keyboard in a while but their ET
>>    temperament bearing usually wasn't anything to brag about, so I
>>    suspect the HT's are not a qualified representation either.  But it
>>    could offer the gist of it or one poor sample for another.
>>
>>    --
>>
>>    Regards,
>>    Jon Page
>>
>>
>>
>
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