My new tuning vs. 12TET vs. Just Intonation: sound samples included

Thanks to Carl Lumma for suggesting this comparison/idea: :-)
__________________________________________________________
Here is the exact same short preview melody/sample in

My 7-note scale:
http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8.mp3

12TET:
http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8_12TET.mp3

The Harmonic Series (harmonics 7-21 approx. 7 notes per octave)
http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8_harm.mp3

The note droning/sustain is intentional: my goal is to make a scale
where all chords are possible IE it is impossible to make a sour chord
out of the series of notes.

To my ears Harmonic Series sounds clearest but 12TET has
significantly more feeling in it...and my 7-tone scale seems to carry
both advantages. Then again, I've been listening to my scale so long
my ears might be "hypnotized" and hopelessly biased...so please listen
and let me know what you think.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "djtrancendance" <djtrancendance@...>
wrote:
>
> Thanks to Carl Lumma for suggesting this comparison/idea: :-)
> __________________________________________________________
> Here is the exact same short preview melody/sample in
>
> My 7-note scale:
> http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8.mp3
>
> 12TET:
> http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8_12TET.mp3
>
> The Harmonic Series (harmonics 7-21 approx. 7 notes per octave)
> http://www.geocities.com/djtrancendance/binaural/binaural8_harm.mp3

Hooray!

You know, it's completely not the point of it, but in testing
these I played them back to back. And I thought they all sounded
good and moreover the transitions between them worked really well!
I could totally hear a piece with 12 bars of this pattern, 4 in
each tuning, with some 2-part melody/harmony line on top.

But I digress. I listened on my excellent Sleek Audio earphones.
The harmonics version did sound the most consonant, and the
12-ET version the next most consonant. Your scale was clearly
the least consonant, but it had a very nice 'bite' to it that
worked well with the composition and was probably my favorite
overall.

Then, I mixed them to mono in Adobe Audition and listened again.
The consonance ranking didn't change, but the contrast between
the three increased.

-Carl

---But I digress. I listened on my excellent Sleek Audio earphones.

Makes some sense you caught things my ear didn't: I only have the $20 Radio Shack brand. :-(

--Your scale was clearly the least consonant, but it had a very nice 'bite' to it that
--worked well with the composition and was probably my favorite
--overall.
   Bizarre.  It looks like I failed miserably at my original goal, but perhaps caught on to something else instead. 

   BTW, I have been scratching my head thinking how 12TET could sound more consonant without sounding "stronger" than my scale. 
   I have already noticed 4 (the left channel) of my 7 notes are from diatonic just intonation (just by ear I found the same notes). 
     ------------
    The other 3 seem to be near diatonic JI again (far as intervals relative to other notes in the channel), only tuned up about a quarter tone or so on average.  After this experiment (IE tonight) I tried simply shifting the 3 JI notes, adjusting by ear so I had.

Left channel
(major 7th chord)
C c# d d#
E
G
B

Right channel (minor triad with each note shifted up by a multiple of about 1.01961451247)
D
F
A

    And then...I found the result was much better than my original scale and seemed to retain the strength with the same more relaxed "transposed down" feel of the 12TET version..
I will likely post a sample tomorrow.

---Then, I mixed them to mono in Adobe Audition and listened again.

---The consonance ranking didn't change, but the contrast between

--the three increased.
   Makes sense as my scale was designed using (and around the concept of succeeding in)  binaural mixing.

   Thanks for listening!  I know, I am still by far a newbie to this and thank you for your patience. :-)

-Michael

--- On Sat, 12/13/08, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
From: Carl Lumma <carl@...>
Subject: [tuning] Re: My new tuning vs. 12TET vs. Just Intonation: sound samples included
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, December 13, 2008, 3:21 PM

--- In tuning@yahoogroups. com, "djtrancendance" <djtrancendance@ ...>

wrote:

>

> Thanks to Carl Lumma for suggesting this comparison/idea: :-)

> ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _

> Here is the exact same short preview melody/sample in

>

> My 7-note scale:

> http://www.geocitie s.com/djtrancend ance/binaural/ binaural8. mp3

>

> 12TET:

> http://www.geocitie s.com/djtrancend ance/binaural/ binaural8_ 12TET.mp3

>

> The Harmonic Series (harmonics 7-21 approx. 7 notes per octave)

> http://www.geocitie s.com/djtrancend ance/binaural/ binaural8_ harm.mp3

Hooray!

You know, it's completely not the point of it, but in testing

these I played them back to back. And I thought they all sounded

good and moreover the transitions between them worked really well!

I could totally hear a piece with 12 bars of this pattern, 4 in

each tuning, with some 2-part melody/harmony line on top.

But I digress. I listened on my excellent Sleek Audio earphones.

The harmonics version did sound the most consonant, and the

12-ET version the next most consonant. Your scale was clearly

the least consonant, but it had a very nice 'bite' to it that

worked well with the composition and was probably my favorite

overall.

Then, I mixed them to mono in Adobe Audition and listened again.

The consonance ranking didn't change, but the contrast between

the three increased.

-Carl