Was OnlyPure not P12ths Tunings

Porritt, David dporritt@mail.smu.edu
Thu, 14 Apr 2005 18:17:05 -0500


The difference between the 12th root of 2, and the 19th root of 3 is 0.00006297038.  That's not a difference I can aurally detect.

dp

David M. Porritt
dporritt@smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Ric Brekne
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 6:43 PM
To: pianotech
Subject: Was OnlyPure not P12ths Tunings

Hi Bernhard

I dont think anyone is having any problem accepting the significance of 
your work on this matter.  Your maths are impressive, and I am certainly 
looking forward to trying out your aural plan to see if there is any 
significant hearable differences between this and other approaches. 

My own method is fairly straightforward. Initially observing one can 
take the 19th root of 3 to equally divide a 12th into equal steps, and 
then having Robert Scotts tunelab 97 available in which a very handy 
little tuning curve editor made it very easy to construct such a 
division while taking into consideration the inharmoncity of the piano 
to be tuned.

It amounts to tuning D3 to A4, then A3 to A4 as a pure 6:3 octave to the 
degree the beat rate of D3-A3 allows that. Then in similiar fashion 
setting D4 to D3 assuring an acceptable D4 to A4 beat rate.  Once these 
4 anchour points are made,  Tunelab 97's numerical editor will do the 
rest very nicely.  Robert was unhappy with his <<quadratic 
interpolater>> approach to constructing tuning curves, but I found that 
if used judiciously, it could create very nice curves indeed.  One 
simply had to be a little <<inharmonicity aware>> as it were.

Aurally, it is no real trick to come up with a bearing plan with these 4 
anchour points. And they are easily enough set by ear or by machine.  I 
found, and way before I even heard of you or your own work, that 
extending such a 12th to the entire tenor-treble range of the piano 
created a wonderful sounding piano with a kind of presence I dont get 
with traditional octave stretching schemes.  Jim Coleman offered a few 
explainations and thoughts as to why the tuning had its own unique 
colour, and then you popped up.  I've heard Bill Ballard talk about an 
article or column he wrote in the journal some 20 years back or so, and 
I've seen another column on the matter from the 70's I believe.

Its an interesting idea, and another one of those things that gets 
thought up in various ways by different people about the globe without 
being aware of each other.  Probably, if one digs enough one can find P 
12ths in detail much further back in time I should think.

But patenting this ??... Heck even Stanwood is having a hard time both 
justifying his methods as patent worthy and making enough money on the 
whole affair... and he has a whole methodology complete with tools and 
the lot.  I just dont see this as patentable in the first place... to 
much loose priors around, nor do I think a patent will accomplish 
anything more then squelshing whatever method you end up getting. You 
might get a few bites... no doubt. 

Personally,  I'd publish, make my little mark... and be happy to have 
contributed something positive... hoping all along that it may be of 
some real use. 

signed.... a confirmed open source development person

RicB



My own

William, Ric,

same people who giggledd and laughed about the P12 approach when i came up 
with it in 1988 say today "thatīs how i have done all the time..."

very interesting that especially P12 tuners have such problems in accepting 
when there is an important discovery (the fractal symmetry of beat ratios to 
frequency ratios in the P12 ET allowing the new pure interval method) on 
their own subject.

kind regards,

Bernhard


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