escaping from the equally tempered scale

Absolutely lethal track, that!

I've been trying to get comfortable with certain aspects of spectralism, and of course the "12tet vs just-intonation" thing is a big ordeal...

Like, kinda the whole point is the elegance and purity of the mathematics, but the practicality of just-intonation is a nightmare (especially with real performers)

I guess the upside is that Grisey, Xenakis, Murain etc didn't mind writing for (traditionally-tuned) piano

I guess FM synthesis is the answer (as usual)

An alternative to tuning period, is to SOLELY rely on your ear.

On this track of mine almost nothing is midi (shameless advertising). Everything, from the pads, bass, my voice, drums, etc are just audio samples I tuned by ear. I think making it more sonically richer. Though most of the time I still use 12tet. The intervals make sense, but the tunings for everything you're hearing are different.

https://soundcloud.com/evoava/chromatic-hush-very-wip

I've made other tracks with that idea in mind, this is just the one that comes to mind first since I deliberately set out to not use a scale.

  On 11/8/2016 at 9:33 PM, Ragnar said:

i did a few tracks in pythagorean scale I think, by just directly editing a ReaJS synth to the right frequencies? it was ok i guess

 

i basically just did it cause i was sick of 432 hz youtube videos that just pitch down the entire song

True 432 tracks is one of the ways of the phuture (and past).  It's one of the few untapped IDM wells.

Also messing with the Pitch Bend midi cc people.It does wonderful things on melodies.

Brisbot - Yah, making melodies etc. by ear is good.  I've also done it with mouth music, or using just one sample and pitch shifting it until it sounded like something.  Because even though keyboards and shit can give a good "base", human emotions aren't really like that.  So expressing something without having to toot your C pitch pipe is gonna be pretty pure, if your ears are good.

Here's a track that I recorded/mixed that was built up from an iPhone sketch recording my friend did.  Her harmonies were sung by listening to the original recording.  Sounds fine and all, but if you measure the tones, they're really off of the standard 12 tone:

I think it's more intervals over a set pitching, as with your track. Instead of forcing music into a specific scale, you're going with whatever is natural to you. Ideas will flow more freely that way too. You will likely gravitate toward an unknown scale, but it'll sound better, since not everything needs to adhere to rules.

when aphex says he makes his own scales, I bet he just picks intervals that sound nice and calls them a scale.

When afx says that he makes his own scales, he means his own scale tunings. Syro is full of 'em, especially noticeable on the piano in Xmas eve. The 432hz thing is a spook, you need different tones for reference, not just a global pitch. 432hz sounds duller and more mellow if you're used to 440hz, other than that I don't think there's some special effect behind it.