My prayers are with the victims of the horrible tragedy that happened in France earlier this month, and will say no more out of respect for the victims.
Human ears like the ratios of 2/1 (octave), 3/2 (perfect fifth), 4/3 (perfect fourth), 5/4 (major third), and 6/5 (minor third). 12-tone equal temperament gives you a really good (but not perfect — that is mathematically impossible with equal temperament) fifth and forth, but its minor and major thirds are over 10 cents out of tune. Then again, equal temperament allows a composer to change keys without having to retune all of the notes.
If you will, all of the notes are equally out of tune in all keys when using equal temperament.
There are a number of interesting ways solutions to try and improve things. I’ll name just one: 19-tone equal temperament gives you a better minor and major third, but its perfect fourth and fifths are barely in tune (7 cents instead of under two cents away from the ideal)
Since one of my older pieces of gear for making music is starting to experience hardware trouble, I have been distracted by having to replace it with a complicated but reasonably inexpensive setup involving making an older computer part of my recording studio. The new technology sounds better, is far more flexible, and costs a lot less than the technology I was using in the late 1990s and early oughts (first 2000s decade), but it’s a lot more time consuming to set up than a “plug in an go” box from the 1980s or 1990s.
That said, I have gotten a really nice track for my up and coming album finished this month. I will probably release it on Bandcamp before the end of the year.
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