Comment

Comment by veli_joza

I've been down that rabbit hole. Math and music aren't really in such harmony as advertised. Yeah, equal tuning gives your instrument ability to play in any key, but it will always be slightly off.

For more enjoyable tuning, your frequency ratios should actually be fractions of small integers. For example, note E to note C ratio should be 5/4. This is called "just intonation", you can hear some examples on youtube when compared to equal temperament described in article. It sounds much better to trained ear, but doesn't work for changing keys.

It would be nice for your digital instrument to be aware of key you are in (much harder than it sounds) and to re-tune all notes into just intonation. This would give you best of both tunings.

parent veli_joza 7 years ago

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton