"The Avon Lady Wears Lattice-Weave Hose"

Hi, Jon! :-)

First, I enjoyed hearing the results of your efforts.

But I wonder whether there is a way, when sampling various
instruments (as you did) that are not necessarily tunable in the real
world, to tune them to each other in the digital world, before mixing
them.

That is to say:

You sampled various Cs on various instruments. But have
you any prior knowledge as to whether or not all of those instruments
were tuned to the same A, [whether "Concert A = 440 (these days, for
lots of folk, at least) or to some other A]?

When I hear your result, whether rightly or wrongly, I have the
sense that these instruments are not exactly tuned to the same
central tonality.

It seems to me that not only must that be done for some tone
near the center of tones displayed in the compositon, but also that
the digitized notes of "same" value in both directions away from that
central standard need to be calibrated, before one worries much about
such things as single-cent differentials -- not that that was your
focus here, but such things seem to concern members of this and
related lists. Only when tonalities amongst synthesized instruments
are so precisely calibrated as I have tried to suggest will harmonic
resultants line up with those suggested theoretically in harmonic-
overtone theory -- whatever may be the actual scale in play.

Or, maybe I am missing something altogether.

Anyway, thanks for an interesting exercize! :-)

Steve Langford

Hey Steve,

{you wrote...}
>But I wonder whether there is a way, when sampling various instruments (as >you did) that are not necessarily tunable in the real world, to tune them >to each other in the digital world, before mixing them.

Without a doubt. More in a bit...

>You sampled various Cs on various instruments. But have you any prior >knowledge as to whether or not all of those instruments were tuned to the >same A, [whether "Concert A = 440 (these days, for lots of folk, at least) >or to some other A]?

The marimba, for instance, could stand a good general tuning (last time was about 20 years ago, which means shipping the bars off to one of the 2 or 3 reliable tuners in the States. I can tell you that the low C is out by a small amount - a cent or two - but hasn't been enough to merit the expense (yes, in a perfect world...).

And chimes! Gad, those instruments will drive one crazy, especially when you realize orchestral chime tubes exhibit the phenomena of not actually sounding their base pitch but one of the harmonics above that first. In fact, I should have used the upper C on the chimes for the sample, not because it was necessarily closer in tune, but the tube actually has (what many have) a built-phase shift, which is a cool effect (though you wouldn't probably want one in a bassoon).

>When I hear your result, whether rightly or wrongly, I have the sense that >these instruments are not exactly tuned to the same central tonality.

True enough, and not for just one reason. I think one of the marimba instruments I fiddled with a detuning between stacked notes, and then there are effects as well.

In a carefully crafted piece, with a real compositional plan (well, maybe in even good improvisation on a well-tuned virtual ensemble), one would carefully tune all samples to match. The *other* important facet is that not only are all samples probably not optimal choices for the basis for a microtonal instrument (where pitch discretion is of a high importance) but it is paramount to pay attention to the timbre of the instrument, and the interplay of the partials.

This is definitely an area where I know virtually nothing, other than one can tune individual samples, in an editor, prior to using them as base samples. People like Bill Sethares and Jacky Ligon have done extensive work on the relationships between tuning, partials, timbre... isn't that almost the title of Bill's book?

>Or, maybe I am missing something altogether.

No, I think you are spot on, at least for some musics and some theories. Just bear in mind that there are other musics (I don't know if you would add theories here) that will take whatever materials, do whatever preparatory work deemed necessary, and then start down the road of making music, and let the partials/tunings fall where they may.

>Anyway, thanks for an interesting exercize! :-)

No problem, especially if we remember that's *all* it was!

Cheers,
Jon

>
> No problem, especially if we remember that's *all* it was!

Nonsense, this type of spontaneous creativity is the very stuff of art, says I. It's the
Tao of Art, you might say. -Justin