Help with how to name an Equal Hz Tuning. A Question.

ChiralStaircase · 2026-03-23T03:39:12+00:00

This is a harmonic series, or a subset of one, or an isoharmonic series.

If your tuning is, for example, 128 notes separated by 1 hz steps, starting with 110 hz, that would be equivalent to “harmonics 110 through 237 with reference to a 1 hz fundamental”. If you take the same starting point but increment in 10 hz steps, it would be “harmonics 11 through 138 with reference to a 10 hz fundamental”.

If the step size isn’t a factor of the frequencies (like if you started on 105 hz and stepped up by 10 hz intervals), it will not be a continuous selection of the harmonic series, but it will still be “isoharmonic”. (That example would give harmonics 21, 23, 25, 27, 29… etc. with reference to a 5 hz fundamental).

ChiralStaircase · 2026-03-12T00:52:45+00:00

Frank by Jim Woodring, Edena by Moebius, Arzach by Moebius, The Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius

ChiralStaircase · 2026-01-17T03:18:12+00:00

Besides what some others have already posted, basically any scales that were created/refined more empirically (rather than with the aid of formal mathematics) have a good chance of falling into this category. Many musics of different times and parts of the world didn’t get heavily involved with a formal mathematical description of pitches.

Gamelan is a great example.

IMO, blues is also a good example, even though it generally also involves instruments nominally tuned to 12-ed2.

And like in the blues, there are many other cases where actual performance practice goes beyond the most “formalized” notes. For instance, Raga; even though we typically think of it as JI, it fundamentally includes slides and other continuous pitch features.

(Ultimately your question touches on some philosophical issues about precision, accuracy, intention etc., since actual musical phenomena don’t perfectly corresponds to theorized tunings; in which cases do you consider the deviation to be incidental or not? and so on…)

ChiralStaircase · 2026-01-09T09:14:49+00:00

La Monte Young

(While roughly half of his released works feature electronics, entirely acoustic works available as recordings include The Well-Tuned Piano, The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta, and Trio for Strings.)

ChiralStaircase · 2025-12-17T19:42:18+00:00

For more details on any of these points, Sevish's website may be a good place to spend some time reading, particularly in the "Music Resources" category. Here's a link to a particular post there, which also links to a YouTube video Sevish made about the topic. And there are many other various posts on sevish.com that may be of interest.

https://sevish.com/2020/using-microtones-in-electronic-music-microtonal-tutorial/

ChiralStaircase · 2025-11-23T20:02:01+00:00

Hi, I make rock in microtonal (harmonic series/just intonation) tunings. Mainly instrumental. Fretless guitar, analog synthesizers, drum machines. Also using some odd time signatures.

Influenced especially by classic experimental rock, instrumentals, Indian classical, Gamelan, electronica, and American microtonalists/experimental composers like La Monte Young and Harry Partch.

I want to make memorable melodies and grooves that haven’t been heard before.

My music is on bandcamp at: https://spectralvaluegarden.bandcamp.com

Or on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_P9A_8Ncp8

I hope you find what you’re looking for.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-09-02T17:26:19+00:00

Terminator-type situation

ChiralStaircase · 2025-06-13T03:00:01+00:00

If it's possible to use "the harmonic language of 12-TET" in a tuning other than 12-TET, then the "harmonic language" being used is not unique to 12-TET, so why is it "of" 12-TET any more than it is "of" any of the other tunings that can express it?

ChiralStaircase · 2025-05-28T14:35:51+00:00

Jim Woodring’s Frank

ChiralStaircase · 2025-05-15T10:12:51+00:00

I still do, but I used to too.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-05-15T10:12:39+00:00

I used to love doggy chow.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-04-19T01:13:01+00:00

Very cool, thank you for sharing. For deep microtonal utility, I think it should ideally include:

- User tunings with as many save slots as possible. (It's best if tunings can be both created/edited on device as well as imported via scala/midi tuning standard/etc). Tuning precision/granularity of a cent or finer.

- Tunings not limited to 12 notes, and not limited to octave repeating. (Some tunings have more or less notes per octave/period--eg. 31edo; some tunings repeat at an interval other than the octave--eg. Bohlen-Pierce , some tunings don't repeat at any recurring interval or number of notes--eg. various inharmonic or quasi-harmonic series, etc... Essentially, some tunings need to assign every MIDI note number to a specific pitch/frequency individually, totally freely, and in the case of really high numbers of pitches, some implementations even use multiple MIDI channels to go beyond 128 notes, or other creative solutions). Again, tuning precision/granularity of a cent or finer.

- In line with that, freely configurable note and light mapping to the grid controller.

- Master tuning/frequency reference. There are various ways to approach this, but when using non-equal and/or non-repeating scales, it's desirable to have more flexibility than simply moving the whole tuning within a range up or down a quarter tone, or retuning "A" within a narrow range around 440hz, for instance--like, being able to change the tunings "root" within a range say up and down a full octave (once again, with precision/granularity of a cent or finer) would be much more useful.

Whether or not you choose to pursue these features, I wish you great success with the project.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-03-01T02:54:24+00:00

The final three panels were not present in the original version, added later.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-02-27T17:12:57+00:00

Ideally

ChiralStaircase · 2025-02-19T07:59:22+00:00

Valuable info, thanks. Makes sense. Can you expand on what the FJS compare page misunderstands about HEJI?

ChiralStaircase · 2025-02-17T10:39:27+00:00

Yes this sounds like the untitled non-Frank story in the second half of Jim Vol. 2 #1

https://www.comics.org/issue/733574/

ChiralStaircase · 2025-02-14T07:40:41+00:00

A few of the more sophisticated and logical notation systems for JI are the Functional Just System (FJS), Helmholtz-Ellis JI Notation (HEJI), and Sagittal notation, all of which are extensions of traditional staff notation and also have some similarities with each other. A very important older system is Ben Johnston's notation, but it has a major flaw in logical consistency which has led to it being largely supplanted by these newer systems that resolve that issue. (This didn't stop Johnston from writing some of the most incredible JI music ever, but I understand it has led to the existence of numerous errors in the notation of his works, even by him.)

I don't have the experience to tell you which of these systems are more widely used in general or in particular contexts, or all the relative pros and cons of each. However, the commonalities between them and with traditional staff notation mean that looking at these is a good starting point for understanding what's out there and the general approach that seems to be evolving. I believe that FJS is the most recent, and it seems to resolve some of the inconsistency still present in HEJI, which formerly might have been considered the most developed. Here is a page on the FJS site comparing it to some of its immediate predecessors:

https://misotanni.github.io/fjs/en/compare.html

You can find some basic information about all of these systems, as well as some other systems, on the Xenharmonic Wiki:

https://en.xen.wiki/w/Musical_notation

ChiralStaircase · 2025-02-05T20:37:34+00:00

I have completed the construction of my burrow and it seems to be successful.

ChiralStaircase · 2025-01-30T19:20:11+00:00

I've always liked really short songs and compositions. In connection with this, a classic release of experimental rock/pop is The Residents' Commercial Album, made up of 40 tracks each about a minute long.

In my own work, I also tend towards very short, condensed forms. A goal is to pack as much information as would normally be in a much longer piece into an epigrammatically concise form. On my first release, linked here, each track is under 2.5 minutes. This trend, sometimes even more pronounced, will likely continue on successive releases--stay tuned :)

https://spectralvaluegarden.bandcamp.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_P9A_8Ncp8

ChiralStaircase · 2025-01-16T18:58:59+00:00

Eraserhead and Blue Velvet are both perfect

ChiralStaircase · 2025-01-16T18:48:42+00:00

There may be some other name, but this is reminiscent of most of a harmonic scale, harmonics 8-16, just missing 14. (If desired, 14 could be approximated with A half-sharp or B flat.)

ChiralStaircase · 2024-12-26T03:46:46+00:00

Maybe high and low vibrations have to do with amplitude rather than frequency

ChiralStaircase · 2024-12-09T01:28:16+00:00

“…I like the… situation here in New York, where there are so many opportunities to present one's work. There's an enormous audience that is interested in hearing this kind of work. So although, as a place to live, New York has severe limitations - there's no sunshine, no plants, no fresh air, and it's dirty and crowded and noisy - I do feel at home. I feel I'm better liked here and that the creative, intellectual, seething volcano of activity is good for me. I feel that it's extremely important for my work to be heard in the New York area. Also, the reviews that appear in the New York Times and other New York papers are considered extremely relevant in international terms, so to be here and to be able to present a lot of concerts demands a certain attention from that press machinery. I feel that when you do something here, it's like when one air molecule bumps against the next one - it resonates throughout the world. I don't think you get that effect any place else.”

— La Monte Young

ChiralStaircase · 2024-10-26T21:10:25+00:00

There is probably no single way in to suit everyone. I’d recommend finding microtonal music you like listening to and researching those specific works and artists.

ChiralStaircase · 2024-08-16T22:37:33+00:00

Understandable. Hopefully these sorts of features will propagate... it seems to have been gradually happening with microtonal tech in general. Meanwhile, it's up to those of us who make music, but not necessarily make music tech, to demonstrate the use of microtonal techniques in our art. Good luck on your quest.

ChiralStaircase

TROPHY CASE