Thesis idea

Hi all,

I'm an undergrad student at University of New South Wales (in Sydney,
Australia) currently studying Electrical Engineering. I've talked to my
supervisor about possible thesis topic ideas (related to music
technology) and one of his recommendations was to explore the use of
computers to adjust dynamically the tuning of the Equal Temperament
System so that it will be more "in tune". (I don't even know whether the
last sentence actually makes sense, cause I've only got a very sketchy
idea in my head at the moment) I've just started reading literature on
the topic of different tuning systems (the basic Pure, Pythagorean,
Meantone and Just). Does the concept of being "perfectly in tune" exist
in keyboard music (and other instrumental compositions) composed
exclusively in the Equal Temperament Tuning? Or is the concept of "in
tune" a subjective thing (discounting the mathematical relationships
between the harmonics in the spectrum)

I've been so overwhelmed by the information exchanged in this mailing
group (admittedly, most of them are over my head), and I'm very willing
to learn and read up on any topics that could help me defining a
possible thesis topic next year. (I guess to qualify for an Electrical
Engineering thesis, some kind of programming / hardware design / signal
processing is required, but I can always negotiate with my supervisor on
that point).

I would appreciate your expertise on any ideas that can help me defining
the scope of my thesis.

Thanks

Adrian

[Adrian wrote:]
>I'm an undergrad student at University of New South Wales (in Sydney,
>Australia) currently studying Electrical Engineering. I've talked to
>my supervisor about possible thesis topic ideas (related to music
>technology) and one of his recommendations was to explore the use of
>computers to adjust dynamically the tuning of the Equal Temperament
>System so that it will be more "in tune". (I don't even know whether
>the last sentence actually makes sense, cause I've only got a very
>sketchy idea in my head at the moment)

I'm here to say that it makes sense. I'm heavily into the game you
describe.

>I've just started reading literature on the topic of different tuning
>systems (the basic Pure, Pythagorean, Meantone and Just).

How is Pure different from Just?

>Does the concept of being "perfectly in tune" exist in keyboard music
>(and other instrumental compositions) composed exclusively in the Equal
>Temperament Tuning?

No. The word "temperament" is synonymous with compromise.

>Or is the concept of "in tune" a subjective thing (discounting the
>mathematical relationships between the harmonics in the spectrum)

How can they be discounted? There is always something subjective about
how good a tuning is - some people work exclusively, and love, tunings
that are completely non-just, but alignment of harmonic partials does
give a special quality to an interval which nothing else does.

>I've been so overwhelmed by the information exchanged in this mailing
>group (admittedly, most of them are over my head), and I'm very willing
>to learn and read up on any topics that could help me defining a
>possible thesis topic next year. (I guess to qualify for an Electrical
>Engineering thesis, some kind of programming / hardware design / signal
>processing is required, but I can always negotiate with my supervisor
>on that point).

>I would appreciate your expertise on any ideas that can help me
>defining the scope of my thesis.

If you're starting from scratch, try the following:

http://www.idcomm.com/personal/jadl/bend_inf.htm

and

/tuning/topicId_4284.html#4284

Once these make sense, you might try moving on to:

/tuning/topicId_7890.html#7890

and

/tuning/topicId_12668.html#12668

Do you have the capability of playing General MIDI (GM) files? If so,
you might want to listen to some examples of dynamically adjusted
tuning (also called adaptive tuning) that I've posted on my web page,

http://www.adaptune.com

JdL

Hi Adrian -- John deLaubenfels is your man. His efforts so far leave
all other dynamic tuning methods in the dust. Perhaps for your thesis
you can tackle some of the issues he hasn't had time for so far, like
true "no tuning file" runs, and compositions that begin in an equal
temperament other than 12-tone .