Thanks for trying my music tuning examples!

Hey Dave,

Thanks for trying my music tuning examples, and thanks for your comments.

Regarding <http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint>,
At 05:34 PM 1/6/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Well, I think I like the just intonation version a little
>better... sounds a little clearer and less muddy.
>
>Of course that could also be my cheap speakers.

I've got the same problem on my end - the puny, 1-inch-diameter speakers on
my laptop PC, not to mention whatever lousy sound card the thing came with.

>It's funny though the first few times I listened to them
>I thought the JI version sounded "thin" and bland and the
>ET version rich and reverberant. But after comparing the two
>I came to like the JI version better.

Yeah, the first time I played JI chords using MIDI, they sounded
out-of-tune to me. Then my opinion would shift. I wondered if JI was an
"acquired taste". But then I figured, well then, equal temperament is an
"acquired BAD taste".

Regarding <http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky/justint/dom7.htm>,
At 05:41 PM 1/6/00 -0800, you wrote:
>
>Blind chord test:
>
>Didn't like Z: too harsh
>W and Y were nice but a little too mellow to be
> good 7th chords
>X was just harsh enough.

Just so you'll know, the "scrambling" I did was as follows:

Z = the 1st tuning: F is 7th harmonic of G
Y = the 2nd tuning: F is up 2 4ths from G (my favorite)
X = the 3rd tuning: F is up a minor 3rd from G
W = the 4th tuning: equal temperament

(In other words, I just ran the alphabet backwards, 'cuz I was lazy.)

So you preferred X = the 3rd tuning. It's interesting to see the different
adjectives people use when they describe sounds.

I think this whole tuning issue is boiling down to how harsh or smooth the
chords "should" be. The case of the Dominant Seventh chord is tricky, 'cuz
on the one hand, I'm voting for smoothness (just intonation is smoother
than equal temperament), but on the other hand I'm voting for harshness
(the chord is unresolved, consonance isn't really the main goal of the chord).

So maybe that's why everybody's got a different opinion about it. It hard
to make a chord smooth and not smooth at the same time.

Thanks again for your input,

--Mark (nowitzky@alum.mit.edu, AKA tuning-owner@onelist.com)

+------------------------------------------------------+
| Mark Nowitzky |
| email: nowitzky@alum.mit.edu AIM: Nowitzky |
| www: http://www.pacificnet.net/~nowitzky |
| "If you haven't visited Mark Nowitzky's home |
| page recently, you haven't missed much..." |
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