OpenMPT tunings (was: OpenMPT suggestion: well temperament)

furrykef · September 09, 2006, 17:05:43

Quote from: "rncekel"By the way, as this is something that most people will never use (and even never mind of), I think that the best approach is the tunning-per-instrument.

I don't see how that conclusion fits the premise... it would be just as easy for Average Joe to ignore the tunings in the song properties as it would be in the instrument editor.

- Kef

anboi · September 09, 2006, 19:41:22

as long as the new stuff is powerful enough to allow me to have a mess about with things like 19-TET etc. then i'm happy. it should definitely allow for user made presets to be shared so you can save time if someone has already done the tuning you want.

furrykef · September 09, 2006, 19:59:22

I don't know about expanding beyond 12-tone systems. I think getting microtonal is a little too radical for OpenMPT. I wouldn't be against it myself, though, but a lot of thought would need to be put into how it's done.

- Kef

Relabsoluness · September 09, 2006, 21:01:07

Quote from: "anboi"as long as the new stuff is powerful enough to allow me to have a mess about with things like 19-TET etc. then i'm happy. it should definitely allow for user made presets to be shared so you can save time if someone has already done the tuning you want.

As said before, all ratios within the noterange, which currently is in practice something like 108(==9*12) steps, are definable one-by-one, so creating something other than 12-tone system is no problem(currently for example the pattern GUI, though, doesn't support that too well); especially TET-tunings are easy to create - all it needs is to set:
-tuning type to TET
-steps per 'period'
-ratio between notes having 'period' steps between them(doesn't have to be integer)
For example:
period = 12, ratio = 2 -> TET12
period = 19, ratio = 2 -> TET19
period = 12, ratio = 0.5 -> 'inverse TET12' ('low' notes would have high ratio and vice versa

About sharing presets:
Tunings can be saved to file and loaded from file; export and import buttons(see screenshot) are there for that.

Sam_Zen · September 10, 2006, 00:53:58

2 Relabsoluness
Thanks.. Your clear explanation has forced me to going to explore this area at least for some next years I guess.

furrykef · September 12, 2006, 18:29:31

Quote from: "rncekel"Western music centered very soon on tempered tunning, and we have been hearing almost exclusively tempered music for some 300 years; so now, most of us prefer really tempered music (even if we don't know anything about it). Many people, when they hear some "just intonation" tunned music, think it is simply out of tune!

By the way, I've been meaning to make a response to this point, but I kept forgetting. I think, in particular, the claim that just intonation sounds "out of tune" is easily refuted by the example of a barbershop quartet. Not everybody finds the sound of a barbershop quartet particularly interesting (I find it a boring style of music), but I'm sure nobody thinks properly-sung barbershop -- in just intonation -- sounds out of tune!

Now if you have a just intonation instrument playing along with an equal tempered instrument, then yes, that will sound out of tune (which is one reason why barbershop is traditionally sung a cappella).

It's also worth noting that players of certain instruments, such as violins, will still tend to play in just intonation, unless there is equal-tempered accompaniment.

- Kef

Sam_Zen · September 13, 2006, 02:14:53

It's a mix of taste and experience I think. I'm used to listen to other tunings as well, and in my case I can get a quick headache by having to listen to a lot of three-tone-chords hammered on a piano. It just starts to scratch the inside of my skull in an unpleasant way.
So any control over a variable in this is welcome.

Relabsoluness · December 28, 2006, 17:36:55

There's now a test build with the tuning things discussed here available at http://modplug.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/modplug/branches/OpenMPT_MPTm_Tuning/mptrack/bin/ (mptrack_Generic.exe). In order to make things work, files std_tunings.tc and local_tunings.tc are also needed(can be found through the above link) and should be located like
\tunings\standard\std_tunings.tc
\tunings\local_tunings.tc
relative to the exe file. Please note that it is not a 'official beta version'.