Intelligent Microtonalists + putting scale math in an emotional perspective + reaching the public (however large or small)

----.....that being said, it's pretty
advanced, for the most part, has a lot of math involved,

    Here's a funny coincidence, I once thought that in tonality diamonds, limits, and things of that sort lay all the answers. 
>>>>>>>>>
   But, after making several of my own scales (15+), I've found that, much as with jazz modulations, my ear and heart/emotions are ultimate guides to where tones should be. 

    There are a few quantitative limits I've noted through experience, yes...like never let note fall within about half the critical band of each other if you want to avoid extreme dissonance and never use over 9 notes per scale for consonance...but, at the same time, using more notes with a fixed amount of dissonance between them can yield new interesting moods...provided that the brain has some clue what level of dissonance to expect next...
 
   But at the same time
many of these limits fold...put enough dissonant notes together and many of them shadow each other out (masking effect) producing something more consonant.  Essentially emotion ultimately guides the way, though math can provide some clever short-cuts for the process.

-----and will most likely
never appeal to a large group of people;
    I actually disagree...I've found micro-tonal scales up to around 9-notes can be considered "normal enough" for people to consider them listen-able, though still not as easily interpret-table at 12TET (with the exception of emulation of 7-note JI through micro-tone, which is essentially the same as 12TET, in my book).
   The trick, much with operating systems like Linux and other "oddities"...is to convince popular artists that it is indeed worth it to try to expand their palette in music into micro-tones...and convince instrument manufacturers to accommodate for micro-tonal configurations without needing a programming wizard on hand.

----and nothing wrong with that, either. I
myself am more interested in reaching people who have little or no knowledge of
tunings; and that's not so hard to do.

   That would be most people, far as I know.  Most people I know who have the privilage of hearing micro-tonal music either jump at how micro-tonal sounds less consonant or less like 12TET. 
   And those who just simply yell at it for lack of consonance...can obviously be disproved...the chief example being the extra 2 blue notes in the 9 note blues scale....to some extent you can argue "well...BB King does some micro-tonal"....and of course the fact many micro-tonal scales emulate Just Intonation more accurately than 12TET. :-) 

   The trick, in my mind, seems to be convincing them that micro-tonal is to "tonal" as calculus is to algebra...often they both can arrive at the same answer, but the prior can also solve more complex problems and enable more complex engineering.
 
   At the same time...if micro-tonal continues to be a
"lost art"...it will still inspire the minds who push its boundaries and push themselves to digest it's huge palette of different sounds and different degrees consonance.  All of which is beautiful for your mind, and virtually anyone elses, ultimately.

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   Another note, my best scale was composed about 40% by math and 60% by ear around a
melody playing in my head...I say best because about half the "never
heard micro-tonal" listeners found it desirable and, at the same time,
it has 9 notes (as a subset of 41TET) that can be formed into chords
almost as easily and with as in 12-TET, yet has ratios very unlike just
intonation. 
    The only other scale system I've seen so far that also
"purposefully disobeys" JI and acheives a similar result is "Lucy
Tuning" based scales.  That and William Sethares' system of making any scale consonant by manipulating the timbre of instruments to match it. 
    Although, somehow, I knew one artist on TIS who even said Sethares' work (a brilliant 10TET guitar piece, in my opinion called "Ten Fingers") sounded bad, and he thought my scale was at least "ok, but not very good". 
   My point is math helps, but there are other emotional factors in making scales that put in a major factor in on top of that problem.

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