Rationale 0.2, free JI composition software

I've just released Rationale version 0.2, for composing in extended just intonation.
http://rationale.sourceforge.net
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rationale

Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, not tested on other platforms. Requires Python 2.5 and Csound.

Features:
-instant tonal center change by hitting T; hit G to return to 1/1;
-regions, so different notes can have different tonal centers;
-notebanks, so you can instantly switch the bank of ratios available;
-Csound, OSC, and Soundfont output;
-transpose selected notes by dragging them vertically;
-independent vertical and horizontal zoom;
-arbitrary quantization and tuplets with a few keypresses.

And lots more. I hope to be posting a tutorial vid in a few days, as there are a lot of features that are easier to understand by seeing than reading.

I'm not a professional programmer, so please save your work frequently, and let me know if you have questions or find bugs. And before doing serious work, try saving a few test files to make sure you can! I've worked my ass off to fix many, many bugs, but I expect a few got by me, especially for Mac.

If you tried my previous program, JIsequencer, a couple years ago, you'll find this is far more stable and useful, you just have to get Python and Csound set up all right first. I'm happy to help with that if I can.

Hope you get some use out of it!

-Chuckk Hubbard

http://www.badmuthahubbard.com

Hi Chuck,

Are the "regions" tonal regions in the Schoenberg sense?

I just ordered Schoenberg's book Saturday.

this software sounds interesting - I'll grab it after work.

Thanks,

Chris

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 6:42 AM, Chuckk Hubbard
<BadMuthaHubbard@...>wrote:

>
>
> I've just released Rationale version 0.2, for composing in extended just
> intonation.
> http://rationale.sourceforge.net
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/rationale
>
> Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, not tested on other platforms. Requires
> Python 2.5 and Csound.
>
> Features:
> -instant tonal center change by hitting T; hit G to return to 1/1;
> -regions, so different notes can have different tonal centers;
> -notebanks, so you can instantly switch the bank of ratios available;
> -Csound, OSC, and Soundfont output;
> -transpose selected notes by dragging them vertically;
> -independent vertical and horizontal zoom;
> -arbitrary quantization and tuplets with a few keypresses.
>
> And lots more. I hope to be posting a tutorial vid in a few days, as there
> are a lot of features that are easier to understand by seeing than reading.
>
> I'm not a professional programmer, so please save your work frequently, and
> let me know if you have questions or find bugs. And before doing serious
> work, try saving a few test files to make sure you can! I've worked my ass
> off to fix many, many bugs, but I expect a few got by me, especially for
> Mac.
>
> If you tried my previous program, JIsequencer, a couple years ago, you'll
> find this is far more stable and useful, you just have to get Python and
> Csound set up all right first. I'm happy to help with that if I can.
>
> Hope you get some use out of it!
>
> -Chuckk Hubbard
>
> http://www.badmuthahubbard.com
>
>
>

Hi.

> Are the "regions" tonal regions in the Schoenberg sense?

I don't know exactly that sense, but it's probably not. In Rationale this is just a visual aid; it doesn't affect how the notes are heard, just how you keep track of them. Kind of like a key change, except simultaneous notes can be in different regions. Their vertical height is unaffected, but they are shown as different notes depending on their tonal center.

> I just ordered Schoenberg's book Saturday.

I read his Theory of Harmony before university, and found it really inspiring. Hope your book is a good read.

> this software sounds interesting - I'll grab it after work.

Thanks Chris. Be warned, it's about the polar opposite of Shoenberg's ideas... Although serialism is one thing Rationale would make far simpler for just intonation. And I also did get my first taste of understanding intervals from his description of frequency ratios, ironically.

-Chuckk