On 20 Mar 2007, at 6:21 pm, Michael Hopkins <email@hidden>:
I'd really want this extra precision for retuning an audio source
when the QuickTime "Extended Note Event" offers 256 values for a MIDI
note.
256 * 12 notes == 3072 values versus 1200 cents for an octave.
3072/1200 == 2.56 is a big difference for alternative temperaments
and microtonal scales.
Two decimals as an (optional) extra precision would be terrific.
Well, that might be a reasonable argument if the cent had any
particular physical significance, but it doesn't. If you're working
with historical temperaments, then every musical useful interval
except the octave turns out to be an _irrational_ number of cents -
which means that no text field is ever going to be big enough. (If
you're working with diatonic scales, you just want to type in the
multipliers. And if you're working with equal temperament microtonal
scales, then you just want to type in the number of notes per
octave. This kind of calculation is exactly what computers were
invented for, after all.)
This might seem like pedantry, but if you're working with a scale
that has pure intervals in it (as nearly every historical temperament
does) then you want to be able to represent them (and have them
sound) accurately. The correct units for describing historical
temperaments are commas, not cents.
Further, if you're working with commas, then you obviously want to be
able to represent them as fractions. A discussion we might want to
have here is whether "fraction" would be a suitable type for an AU
parameter, and if so, how you would stuff a fraction into just one
float's worth of memory.
(Although it obviously doesn't use a generic view, the screen shot
for John Barnes' temperament on the examples page at
www.fdsynthesis.com shows how I think synthesisers _should_ let you
edit tuning schemes.)
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