User:FloraC/Fumica's edo impressions

Exo

• 1 – An exposition of pitch.
• 2 – An exposition of consonance and dissonance.
• 3 – Augmented chord.
• 4 – Diminished chord.
• 5 – Neutral pentic.
• 6 – Whole tone scale.
• 7 – Neutral diatonic.
• 8 – The first nontrivial nondiatonic edo. Since neither the fifth nor the major second passes as consonance, quintal harmony isn't available, not to mention tertian harmony. From here the more complex ratios it approximate on paper generally lack the context to make them ring. All things considered, with the very sparse harmonic resource, it forces an approach that focuses on rhythm, texture – anything but harmony. Maybe just treat this thing as two diminished chords and call it a day, so that you don't have to fight it. It's demoralizing. Of course, some resource is there if you try hard enough. I just believe music that sounds good in it sounds good despite it, not because of it.
• 9 – Similar to 8edo, its harmonic resource is quite sparse. Treat it as augmented chords. Good news is there are three.

Semitone-size

• 10 – The first serious edo. Expressivity in the classical and/or septimal chords are neutralized, but harmonic 13 is accurately approximated and offers a critical advantage over 12edo. Imo the best edo for serialism.
• 11 – Every other step of 22edo. Quite interesting as it hits the 2.9.15.7.11 subgroup, and thus allows a form of quintal harmony. Actually my favorite nondiatonic edo.
• 12 – A no-brainer. Fully laid-back, like a good font to an article – never to get in the way, never to show itself off. It disappears. It lets you focus on the contents.
• 13 – Every other step of 26edo. Like 11edo, quintal harmony can be used. The intonation sucks.
• 14 – I heard it too that it was the "most dissonant edo". The intonation surely has a lot of spice. Supports squares and godzilla, making it important in theory. Perhaps works better as an interval category scheme than as sound to be listened to.

Subsemitone-size

• 15 – The error of the fifth is getting quite large for its step size, particularly if you compare it with 10edo. Either this or 10edo can be viewed as the opposite of 14edo, so I think of this as the direct competitor of 10edo. As for which I prefer? I have no idea.
• 16 – Potentially useful as every other step of 32edo. Besides that, it has armodue, basically an extremely flat fifth that doesn't sound like the 3rd harmonic at all. "Fifthness" is useless if not for approximating the 3rd harmonic, so I'm afraid I don't consider this approach to have much value.
• 17 – This edo contains an impressive diatonic scale which is nice for both melody and harmony. Semiquartal harmony, that is using the contrast between 7/4 and 12/7 as the basis of tonality, works exceptionally well in this system.
• 18 – Potentially useful as every other step of 36edo.
• 19 – This edo is where my microtonal journey began. Extremely versatile yet friendly to beginners. Using it as a tuning of meantone, the tuning profile is sort of opposite to 12edo, but with seven more pitch classes, the expressive possibility explodes. Presence of an exact hemitwelfth sets it apart from many other meantone edos.
• 20 – 15edo but worse.
• 21 – 14edo but worse.
• 22 – The least evil solution to porcupine and less so to superpyth. I happen to have experience working with porcupine and it felt quite alright, except that I often found myself struggling to combat its out-of-tune nature.
• 23 – Potentially useful as every other step of 46edo.
• 24 – This is kind of a normie's edo, but also the most accessible. Quartertones in my otherwise 12edo works often go unnoticed by the audience. A natural next step of 12edo with a structurally beautiful 2.3.5.11.17.19 subgroup interpretation.
• 25 – Potentially useful as every other step of 50edo.
• 26 – Just as 19edo is the point separating meantone and flattone, this is the point separating flattone and a meantone extension that implies an even flatter fifth. Therefore it shares all the advantages of 12edo and 19edo, at least theoretically, that is if not for its poor intonation in the 5-limit.

Diesis-size

• 27 – The cyberpunk edo. Good sharp-tending tuning profile in the 2.3.5.7.13 subgroup with the sole exception of the harmonic 15, which is way too sharp for my taste. I prefer a flat tuning of 15 or at least no sharper than 12edo's, so as to improve its stability as a consonant major seventh. Other than that 27edo is pretty good.
• 28 – Potentially useful as every other step of 56edo.
• 29 – The first edo that sounds like Pythagorean tuning with distinct chromatic and diatonic semitones. Also a good framework as every other step of 58edo and every third step of 87edo.
• 30 – Potentially useful as every other step of 60edo.
• 31 – This is a great edo, with a tuning profile close to what I consider the optimal tuning of meantone. Too great it's a little unfun to work with.
• 32 – 27edo but worse.
• 33 – 26edo but worse.
• 34 – This is to 17edo what 24edo is to 12edo. While 17edo is often good enough, this offers some more sophisticated solutions such as tetracot. Even the harmonics 7 and 11, commonly cited as poor in this edo, are convincing enough to me, since when I worked with modus I never felt the out-of-tune-ness at all, unlike with porcupine.
• 35 – Potentially useful as every other step of 70edo.
• 36 – The idea of adding third tones to plain 12edo music is interesting. However none of my attempts have been successful as I generally find them to sound forced. I think this edo is more difficult to use than it appears.
• 37 – Potentially useful as every other step of 74edo. Besides that, it has a good 2.5.7.11.13 subgroup interpretation, tho I have no idea how harmony in this subgroup is supposed to work.
• 38 – This is to 19edo what 24edo is to 12edo. On paper it adds decent approximation to harmonics 11, 17, and 19. In practice however, I never had a situation where I felt I needed these additional notes when working with 19edo.

Comma-size

Starting from here, all edos have at least one diatonic scale (35edo being the last nondiatonic edo). I'm only listing those which have a good fifth (relative error < 1/3).

…