AW.: RE: Re: recent sine-tone stuff, carillon

Misc. items:

-----With good equipment, tuning just intervals accurately by ear with sine
waves is simply a matter of the length of the tuning period. Given the right
register, one can hear several orders of difference tones and the chords lock
quickly into place, with an accuracy of much greater than one percent.

-----As Sethares makes clear, the optimal timbre for both harmonic and
subharmonic chords is a harmonic one. (Labeling something 'harmonic' or
'subharmonic' is essentially a matter of convention, since all just chords
can be notated either way; a convention that makes sense is to label a given
chord 'harmonic' when the numerators are smaller than the denominators when
notated subharmonically. Ambiguous chords can be labeled according to their
funtional context.)
One point of view, and probably a controversial one at that, holds sine waves
to be what I'll call a "minimal harmonic timbre", and as such will be the
minimal optimal timbre for both harmonic and subharmonic chords.

-----I find sine waves to be especially useful in that the masking of
individual voices by partial tones is eliminated, although difference tones
may create masking of their own. (Lou Harrison has had considerable problems
with false gong tones created by difference tones between his just
metallophones). This is a real problem in both orchestration and synthesis.

-----In einer Nachricht vom 9/20/99 10:02:53 PM (MEZ) - Mitteleurop.
Sommerzeschreibt PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com:

<<
>I would guess that the bodies of the horns will
>resonate with their own harmonics, at least.

Remember, the resonant frequencies of the horn can only determine selective
amplification characteristics -- they won't add new harmonic content to the
signal (except in transients). >>

If there is enough noise in the signal, the speaker's own resonances can be
activated. This is similar to the situation with resonated idiophones. I've
found most commercial synthesizers to be practically unusable due to the
combination of high noise content with the low tuning accuracy. The
double-precision Rayna synth I use for installations is customized -- as are
La Monte Young's -- with a good low pass filter to cut out most of the
unwanted noise. A major limitation with the Rayna is that it only has four
channels of output, although I may use up to 59 voices. The distributions of
the individual voices over the four channels is sensitive, as is the size and
placement of the louspeakers in the room. With some thick chords, lacking
the ability to send each oscillator out on its own channel, the optimal
solution may sometimes be to send it all out, mono, over a single
loudspeaker. (Is it any wonder that La Monte Young spends all his spare
change on good loudspeakers?).

----- Finally, regarding Darren Burgess's carillon project. I understand
that you have decided, for practical reasons, not to fine tune the 2nd and
3rd modes. But I don't understand how you will eliminate the (untuned) modes
without use of a filter or mute of some sort. above and beyond the issue of
loudspeakers, the idea of getting a sine wave out of a struck rod sounds a
bit strange, perhaps you meant only to say that the just intervals would be
between the fundamentals? Even if you do filter out the upper partials,
wouldn't you end up with something that sounds not at all like a carillon?