16 Dec
2002
16 Dec
'02
10:04 p.m.
On Tuesday 17 December 2002 01.50, Pascal Haakmat wrote:
16/12/02 16:51, Paul Davis wrote:
For the exact reason I've suggested once or twice: A musical time
aware effects might want to know the length of one beat, or one bar.
Why not just allow the user to select "beats" or "bars" instead of
"note value" when configuring such a plugin?
If you have integer-only meters, you make it impossible to do exactly
that, in the cases where beat or bar sync is most interesting; in
polyrythmic compositions. Users will have to resort to telling these
plugins about the correct lengths in other, potentially non-obvious
and/or inaccurate ways.
western music's emphasis on integral beats
per bar has led to a
slipping away of a great deal of the fun and beauty to be found
in other musical traditions. i've recommended it before, and i'll
do it again now:
I find your exposition on Indian rhythms fascinating and very
interesting, but I'm afraid I don't see how it relates to a
discussion about designing musical instruments. I do not believe that the goal of instrument design
should be to
accomodate every possible musical expression under the sun.
No, but we should at least try to cover what we know about, are
interested in, and can handle without too much trouble. (And I'm
definitely interested in exploring stuff beyond 4/4 and 6/8.)
A
musical instrument is always part of a culture and a history and
this defines its use.
So, you're not supposed to use cutting edge technology, unless you're
interested only in traditional western european music?
That is very discriminating, not only towards other cultures, but
also towards those of us who want to experiment and explore things
beyond 12tET and simple rhythms.
It makes little sense to say that the piano is a
flawed instrument
because it is so closely tied to Western musical values. In fact
the opposite is true: the piano is one of the great instruments
precisely because it lends itself so well to the expression of
Western musical values.
So what? I sure still want to explore harmonies beyond the 12tET
scale. We're not *excluding* anything here; just trying to find the
smallest common denominators for *music*, rather than just for most
kinds of western european music.
Modern technology (and software in particular) allows
us to design
incredibly flexible instruments without needing to commit to any
particular musical tradition at all. That doesn't mean that doing
so is also always a good idea.
Why is it a good idea to *prevent* interesting uses, just so you
don't even have to think about the consequences of using a float
where you could have used an int?
After all, is it preferable to have a piece of wood
with the
potential to become any kind of instrument, or a guitar?
What's wrong with a fretless guitar?
Indeed, you'd have to learn how to play it, but that's a non-issue in
our world. Sequencers and MIDI->event converters don't have a problem
delivering the exact right values every time.
//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate
.- The Return of Audiality! --------------------------------.
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