Just Intonation

So it took quite some time but finally, just intonation found me. I'm completely dumbstruck as to why I haven't heard of this before, because it's absolutely fucking perfect.

Short story if you have no idea what I'm talking about: Equal temperament, what you're used to, is a flawed compromise in order to have all the keys sounding the same, for ease of transposing and modulating. The result is that every key is a little out of tune. Just intonation is a return to the system where all the intervals are tuned in perfect ratios to eachother. Even the simplest fifth chord sounds heavenly if you haven't heard it yet. The only drawback is that transposing will make your melody sound a bit different, but in this day and age I'm not even sure that's a drawback.

This is the difference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhZpvGSPx6w

Now, go read up on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation

Try it for yourself on your favourite VST (if it has tuning capabilities)

http://www.musicwords.net/musictech/justtutor/justtutor7.htm

So I've decided to explore the possibilities, and I'm curious if anyone here has any experience with retuning your intervals. I would like to get into some exotic tuning version of just intonation, but I can't find any that tells me simply what cents to tune each key, because I'm not a math head and don't understand the ratio numbers stuff on Wikipedia.

Logic has a really great feature, I believe it's called Hermode tuning where it will repitch simple intervals of MIDI into just intonation ratios and then revert to equal temperament when it is more practical for the note combination to be tuned as such. I'm gonna try to work with just intonation from now on when it's practical.

  On 10/7/2009 at 1:19 AM, Wall Bird said:

Logic has a really great feature, I believe it's called Hermode tuning where it will repitch simple intervals of MIDI into just intonation ratios and then revert to equal temperament when it is more practical for the note combination to be tuned as such. I'm gonna try to work with just intonation from now on when it's practical.

yeah logic's hermode tuning is a really cool feature, and a pretty clever system. Kind of like the best of both worlds from equal temperament and just intonation. The trouble is with just intonation is not just transposing between keys its the non-scale notes. this is fine if you stay completely whithin one key for a piece as a lot of older classical music did (before equal temperament was commonly accepted). these days, however, especially since blues and jazz came along, even a tune considered to stay pretty much in one key will have a lot of 'accidentals', and these notes will sound pretty out of tune in a just intonation system!

this is why early music singers sound so fantastic when they end on open 5ths. it's hard not the feel the divine presence. William Byrd and Josquin ftw.

zynaddsubfx and z3ta+ are polyphonic and can both use alternate tunings(scala, .scl files). I'm sure there are more.

  On 10/7/2009 at 9:46 AM, Bubba69 said:

zynaddsubfx and z3ta+ are polyphonic and can both use alternate tunings(scala, .scl files). I'm sure there are more.

interested to see a list of any more, specifically those offering Hermode Tuning

I also forgot to mention that there is a synthedit module that somebody made that supports the scala format, so I'm sure there a few synthedit creations that have alternate tuning support. Unfortunately the scala(not the programming language, but the tuning file format .tun) website is down so I don't know where you can find all of the example files but there are probably other sites with these tunings.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=195253&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3337740

i write 90% of my music on guitar these days so just intonation is pretty much impossible for me unless i use one of my fretless guitars.

1/5

  On 10/8/2009 at 11:24 PM, Bubba69 said:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=195253&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3337740

Really interesting reads man.

Albino 3 doesn't read scala but it has a ton of different tunings available, I've been exploring them and fell in love with a few, especially the japanese and the golden ratio ones.

I'm looking to play some Just Intonation stuff on my MS-10 (currently sequenced using a Kenton Pro Solo + midi). What are my options for getting the tuning right?

See also the last track of Wendy Carlos's instructional record Secrets of Synthesis. Just intonation is more geometrically precise and would be more pleasing to the ear if you weren't raised on twelve tone equal temperament, but then you have to watch out for the wolf interval and you can't just change key half way through a song without retuning the instrument. (I guess that last part wouldn't be a problem with a well designed DAW and a complete lack of acoustic and electric instruments.)

In adopting twelve tone equal temperament, people gave up perfection for the sake of being practical, just as with MP3s instead of CDs. Sure, they're not as good, but they're a lot more convenient. Don't underestimate the importance of convenience.

  On 10/9/2009 at 10:25 PM, Bubba69 said:

1/5

Actually, it's 3:2. They just call it a 5th becasue it's the 5th scale interval. That name has nothing to do with the frequency ratio.

Just curious... How many of you think that you could pick the just tuned example in an A/B test?

I think I almost prefer the "movement" in equal temperament. Just intonation is too still.

  On 10/7/2011 at 9:04 PM, Kcinsu said:

Just curious... How many of you think that you could pick the just tuned example in an A/B test?

If it was chords I think I might be able to. A straight not progression...maybe.

Beautiful, but way too much of a hassle.