10 Dec
2002
10 Dec
'02
8:20 a.m.
On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 01:13:26 +0100, David Olofson wrote:
Oh, you noticed that ;)
Well they do because you're making them deal with a factor of 12. For no
good reason.
But it doesn't, it increases thee number of conversions. There are more
times when you care about octaves than where you care about making the
12tET note number to pitch mapping *very slightly* easier.
If you allow host writers to assume that note->pitch mapping is as easy
as casting then they will! Therefore, no interesting scale support, you
may as well have dropped all pretense at supporting pure pitch.
I thought sequencers were going to send note numbers?
Then you're missing the point. My 12.0/octave
linear_pitch is
*exactly* the same thing as your 1.0 - except that it's 12.0 instead
of 1.0. (See previous post.)
Yeah, and thats why its bad.
They will as
long as you dont try to enforce note numbering in the
API.
No note numbering is enforced. It's just that there's this stupid
12.0 factor instead of 1.0... :-/ Complex
tunings wont map to note numbering in any useful way
anyway.
Yes, they will. Who said 1.0/tone implies that there is an integer
number of tones/octave, or even that the tuning repeats for every
octave? Either way, it doesn't matter to synths anyway, since they
don't care about numbering anyway. If you just
represent pitch, then I can create a virtual
instrument (connected to a physical one if neccesary) that can
create the right pitches for the scale (or be analogue).
I *am* suggesting to represent pitch; just that it is expressed as
12.0/octave instead of 1.0/octave, to eliminate all conversions in
12tET systems. I think this
is better for unusual tunings, and it doesnt hurt the
12tET case.
It *does* hurt the 12tET case, at least unless you're suggesting that
sequencers should always store 1.0/octave...? Well, that's exactly why I want to avoid it
entirely, by working in
1.0/tone until I actually *need* pitch. If you do 1.0/octave
everywhere, the tone/scale logic is lost. As long as you're doing
12tET, it might not matter, but when you start using other scales, it
may quickly become both expensive and innacurate.
The tone/scale magic is hardly ever useful though, it it forces everyone
else to work around a factor of 12.
- Steve