BudjarnLambeth
Joined 22 July 2022
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* Location: New South Wales, Australia | * Location: New South Wales, Australia | ||
* Born: 1999 | * Born: 1999 | ||
* Pronouns: he/she | * Pronouns: they/he/she (bigender) | ||
* Nationality: Bundjalung (Aboriginal) and Australian | |||
* Contactable at: https://www.facebook.com/budjarnlambeth/ or on my [[User talk:BudjarnLambeth|talk page]] | * Contactable at: https://www.facebook.com/budjarnlambeth/ or on my [[User talk:BudjarnLambeth|talk page]] | ||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
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Playlist contents: | Playlist contents: | ||
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; text-align:left;" | {| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%; text-align:left;" | ||
! Title !! Date !! Link!! Tuning / Notes | ! Title !! Date !! Link!! Tuning / Notes | ||
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| '''Enchanted Shopping Mall''' || 2024-02 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=scCuGXnj5IY YouTube]|| 33edo, flattertone[7] scale; synthwave | | '''Enchanted Shopping Mall''' || 2024-02 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=scCuGXnj5IY YouTube]|| 33edo, flattertone[7] scale; synthwave | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''The Wound''' || 2024-11 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_NepcrTf9ng YouTube]|| Rocket[19]/ | | '''The Wound''' || 2024-11 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_NepcrTf9ng YouTube]|| Rocket[19]/deutone[19], 5-tone subset - 'cosmic scale'; electronic contemporary classical | ||
|- | |||
| '''Fennec Temple''' || 2020 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lIEmJTPkSFQ YouTube]|| 14edo, 7-tone fennec scale; piece for electronic flutes | |||
|- | |- | ||
| '''The Odd Effects of Breathing the Fairy Dust''' || 2026-03 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDbqf3g88BE YouTube]|| 59edo, porcupine[15] scale; electronic contemporary classical | | '''The Odd Effects of Breathing the Fairy Dust''' || 2026-03 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YDbqf3g88BE YouTube]|| 59edo, porcupine[15] scale; electronic contemporary classical | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Ibex''' || 2025-12 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CqBmABrTRas YouTube]|| 13edo, 6-tone ibex scale; electronic contemporary classical | ||
|- | |||
| '''Moody Improvisation in Shoal Temperament''' || 2025-02 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bwGjN56iMM0 YouTube]|| Shoal temperament; electronic contemporary classical | |||
|- | |||
| '''Grady Olympos Staircase Tuning Chord Progression''' || 2024-04 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q1sZkMZVUCE YouTube]|| Darksynth | |||
|- | |||
| '''Strange Findings in the Caves''' || 2025-10 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aWqdWHSk5J4 YouTube]|| 343edo, lucite[23] scale; electronic contemporary classical | |||
|- | |- | ||
| '''The Bells in the Rain''' || 2025-05 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwfO1lZWAc YouTube]|| 21edo, pelog-like pentatonic; electronic contemporary classical; using a custom scale for struck metal timbres | | '''The Bells in the Rain''' || 2025-05 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tIwfO1lZWAc YouTube]|| 21edo, pelog-like pentatonic; electronic contemporary classical; using a custom scale for struck metal timbres | ||
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| '''Blackened Skies''' || 2020 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWMRJihZbPc YouTube]|| 72edo, modified blues scale; darksynth | | '''Blackened Skies''' || 2020 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eWMRJihZbPc YouTube]|| 72edo, modified blues scale; darksynth | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Will-O-Wisps''' || 2025-11 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JrpcIkElKQc YouTube]|| 27edo, will-o-wisp scale; electronic contemporary classical | ||
|- | |- | ||
| '''Lighting the Jack-o'-lanterns''' || 2025-10 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPXaMTdTSgw YouTube]|| 35edo, Blackwood[20] scale; electronic contemporary classical | | '''Lighting the Jack-o'-lanterns''' || 2025-10 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPXaMTdTSgw YouTube]|| 35edo, Blackwood[20] scale; electronic contemporary classical | ||
|- | |- | ||
| ''' | | '''Rain Drops on Palm Leaves''' || 2026-08 || [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p73TGfpwWYU YouTube]|| 72edo, catakleismic[15] scale; electronic contemporary classical/kosmiche musik | ||
|} | |} | ||
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* '''[[User:BudjarnLambeth/Moon dust|Moon Dust]] scale:''' A 16-tone just intonation scale with a period of 16/1 (four octaves). It features dynamic step sizes and a mix of familiar 3-limit harmonies with xenharmonic 19-limit (no-5, no-13) intervals. | * '''[[User:BudjarnLambeth/Moon dust|Moon Dust]] scale:''' A 16-tone just intonation scale with a period of 16/1 (four octaves). It features dynamic step sizes and a mix of familiar 3-limit harmonies with xenharmonic 19-limit (no-5, no-13) intervals. | ||
* '''[[Firedance]] scale:''' A 5-tone subset of zeta-stretched 15edo (47zpi). It was designed by ear, starting from 5edo and adjusting steps by degrees of 15edo. | * '''[[Firedance]] scale:''' A 5-tone subset of zeta-stretched 15edo (47zpi). It was designed by ear, starting from 5edo and adjusting steps by degrees of 15edo. | ||
'''''Many more listed at [[User:BudjarnLambeth#Invented tunings (scales)]].''''' | |||
===== How I construct a scale ===== | |||
Occasionally people (often people who are way more musically talented than me!) say things to me like "I wish I knew as much as you. How do you discover so many scales that good music can be made out of? What theory do I have to study to be able to do what you do?" | |||
The reality is, I don't have access to any kind of special super deep theory. I can't figure out how to do all the complicated lattice and comma stuff either! You can do it too, it just takes a long time, but it doesn't require expertise. | |||
What I do is I spend a really long time messing around in Scale Workshop, starting with a familiar known scale, or a randomly generated scale, and then just making little changes to it to make it sound slightly better. | |||
I will test every combination of notes, and if one clashes with the others a lot, I'll change or remove that one. | |||
I'll noodle some improvised melodies, and if I hear in my head a note I want to play but it's not in the scale, I'll add it. | |||
I'll adjust the tuning of each interval up or down a little bit, trying other nearby intervals, until it sounds maximally harmonious to my ear. | |||
Then I'll noodle some more and try to hear which note sounds like the root, and rotate the scale to officially make it the root. | |||
And I'll repeat this whole entire process over and over, with different synth timbres and different pitch ranges (bass, treble, etc) until the scale sounds sweet and vibrant to me, and then I'll name it, document it, and maybe eventually make music with it. | |||
That's my process. | |||
As for where the scale names come from, usually they come from the visual image I imagine in my head as I'm noodling in the finished scale, or sometimes they are named after an existing scale that they are a modification of. The name is usually one of those two things. | |||
==== Tuning recommendations ==== | ==== Tuning recommendations ==== | ||
Lambeth recommends the following tunings for Western musicians exploring world music traditions: | Lambeth recommends the following tunings for Western musicians exploring world music traditions: | ||
* '''For Gamelan scales (Pelog/Slendro):''' He recommends specific EDOs that approximate these scales | * '''For Gamelan scales (Pelog/Slendro):''' He recommends specific EDOs that approximate these scales well. His personal favorite is '''44edo'''. Other good approximations include 21, 23, 35, 39, 40, 42, 54, and 60edo. | ||
** More detailed version: [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Edo approximations of gamelan scales]] | ** More detailed version: [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Edo approximations of gamelan scales]] | ||
* '''For Japanese scales:''' He prefers '''Meantone''' temperaments in '''55edo''', '''98edo''', or '''43edo''' (approx. 1/5-comma meantone). He generally dislikes 5-limit JI or Pythagorean tunings for these scales, finding the "wolf" intervals objectionable. | * '''For Japanese scales:''' He prefers '''Meantone''' temperaments in '''55edo''', '''98edo''', or '''43edo''' (approx. 1/5-comma meantone). He generally dislikes 5-limit JI or Pythagorean tunings for these scales, finding the "wolf" intervals objectionable. | ||
** More detailed version: [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Some tunings for Japanese scales]] | ** More detailed version: [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Some tunings for Japanese scales]] | ||
==== Original music ==== | |||
Since late 2023, Budjarn Lambeth has cultivated a prolific hobbyist career as a microtonal composer, turning his YouTube channel into a public laboratory for xenharmonic experimentation. Utilizing a specialized toolkit—including Scale Workshop, ThumbJam, GeoShred, AudioKit Synth One and Audacity—Lambeth explores the mathematical "cracks between the keys" of standard tuning. His work is defined by a process-driven curiosity and an open-source spirit, frequently offering his compositions as "free to use" while providing educational links to tuning theory. His output is remarkably diverse, spanning everything from 19EDO (Equal Division of the Octave) to complex just intonation and obscure temperaments like Orwell and Sensi. | |||
The artistic trajectory of Lambeth’s career reached a significant milestone in August 2024 with "Four Improvisations in 21-Tone Equal Temperament," which remains his flagship work with over 1,700 views and a perfect 100% like ratio. This success signaled a shift from purely technical tuning demonstrations to more atmospheric and narrative-driven compositions. Earlier highlights, such as the surreal "Enchanted Shopping Mall" (33EDO) and the playful "Bubblegum," demonstrated his ability to make alien scales feel emotionally accessible. | |||
By 2025 and 2026, Lambeth’s work matured into more cinematic and evocative territory, evidenced by titles like "The Odd Effects of Breathing the Fairy Dust" (59EDO) and "Rain in the Crystal Mirror Caves." While some of his more radical experiments—such as those in smaller, more dissonant edos like 15edo and 16edo—have occasionally polarized his listeners, he maintains a dedicated niche audience that values his unique blend of rigorous music theory and poetic sensibility. | |||
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* The [[breuddwyd6|breuddwyd-6]] scale | * The [[breuddwyd6|breuddwyd-6]] scale | ||
* The [[35edo#Scales|fourfourths]] scale | * The [[35edo#Scales|fourfourths]] scale | ||
* The [[Maeve Gutierrez#Gutierrez-Lambeth otonal neutral hexatonic|Gutierrez-Lambeth otonal neutral hexatonic]] scale | |||
* The [[38edo#Scales|hemisettled11]] scale | * The [[38edo#Scales|hemisettled11]] scale | ||
* The [[38edo#Scales|hemisettled16]] scale | * The [[38edo#Scales|hemisettled16]] scale | ||
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* The [[9edf#Scales|molten slendro]] scale | * The [[9edf#Scales|molten slendro]] scale | ||
* The [[38edo#Scales|nineteenplus]] scale | * The [[38edo#Scales|nineteenplus]] scale | ||
* The [[30afdo#Scales|neutral melodic minor]] scale | |||
* The [[oclock]] scale | * The [[oclock]] scale | ||
* The [[37edo#Scales|opalised ammonite]] scale | * The [[37edo#Scales|opalised ammonite]] scale | ||
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* The [[38edo#Scales|well-tempered 19-in-38]] scale | * The [[38edo#Scales|well-tempered 19-in-38]] scale | ||
* The [[Maeve Gutierrez#Will-o-wisps' scale|will-o-wisps']] scale | * The [[Maeve Gutierrez#Will-o-wisps' scale|will-o-wisps']] scale | ||
* The [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Volcanic glass|volcanic glass]] scale | |||
* The [[26ed5#13ed5plus|13ed5plus]] scale | * The [[26ed5#13ed5plus|13ed5plus]] scale | ||
* The [[antipental blues]] scale ''and its expansions'': | * The [[antipental blues]] scale ''and its expansions'': | ||
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* The [[anisopteran scale]] | * The [[anisopteran scale]] | ||
* The [[14afdo#Scales|apex]] scale | * The [[14afdo#Scales|apex]] scale | ||
* The [[30afdo#Scales|baobab]] scale | |||
* The [[30edo#Scales|bathypelagic]] scale | * The [[30edo#Scales|bathypelagic]] scale | ||
* The [[blackened skies]] scale | * The [[blackened skies]] scale | ||
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* The [[27edo#Scales|direct sunlight]] scale | * The [[27edo#Scales|direct sunlight]] scale | ||
* The [[Shoal17#Scales|driftwood]] scale | * The [[Shoal17#Scales|driftwood]] scale | ||
* The [[30edo#Scales|dusty]] scale | |||
* The [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Hall of mirrors#Enrichment scale|enrichment]] scale | * The [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Hall of mirrors#Enrichment scale|enrichment]] scale | ||
* The [[Peppermint-24#Salt and pepper scale and its subsets|evacuated planet]] scale | * The [[Peppermint-24#Salt and pepper scale and its subsets|evacuated planet]] scale | ||
* The [[firedance]] scale | * The [[firedance]] scale | ||
* The [[18ifdo#Scales|fireflies]] scale | |||
* The [[5- to 10-tone scales from the modes of the harmonic series#Macrotonal NEJI edos|fishcrackers]] scale | * The [[5- to 10-tone scales from the modes of the harmonic series#Macrotonal NEJI edos|fishcrackers]] scale | ||
* The [[67edo#Scales|formicarium]] scale | * The [[67edo#Scales|formicarium]] scale | ||
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* The [[16afdo#Scales|moonbeam]] scale | * The [[16afdo#Scales|moonbeam]] scale | ||
* The [[moon dust]] scale | * The [[moon dust]] scale | ||
* The [[30afdo#Scales|mushroom]] scale | |||
* The [[30edo#Scales|nightdrive]] scale | * The [[30edo#Scales|nightdrive]] scale | ||
* The [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Over the Hedge|Over the Hedge]] scale | * The [[User:BudjarnLambeth/Over the Hedge|Over the Hedge]] scale | ||
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* The [[8afdo#Scales|ultraviolet]] scale | * The [[8afdo#Scales|ultraviolet]] scale | ||
* The [[8afdo#Scales|undercurrent]] scale | * The [[8afdo#Scales|undercurrent]] scale | ||
* The [[11ifdo#Scales|undersea cave]] scale | |||
* The [[67edo#Scales|understory]] scale | * The [[67edo#Scales|understory]] scale | ||
* The [[8afdo#Scales|upwelling]] scale | * The [[8afdo#Scales|upwelling]] scale | ||
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* '''Arbitrary numbers:''' It’s fine to explore the 2.3.5.101 [[subgroup]] if you want to. It doesn’t matter that it’s less [[concordant]] than 2.3.5.7. Explore it anyway and see what happens. Do some stuff with [[:Category:Novelties|arbitrary numbers]] that don’t make logical sense and just see what comes of it. That’s where the fun is! (Though do keep a “2.3” or “3.5” in there just to smooth over the gnarliest edges, heehee.) | * '''Arbitrary numbers:''' It’s fine to explore the 2.3.5.101 [[subgroup]] if you want to. It doesn’t matter that it’s less [[concordant]] than 2.3.5.7. Explore it anyway and see what happens. Do some stuff with [[:Category:Novelties|arbitrary numbers]] that don’t make logical sense and just see what comes of it. That’s where the fun is! (Though do keep a “2.3” or “3.5” in there just to smooth over the gnarliest edges, heehee.) | ||
* '''Importance of common names:''' I would prefer to use a temperament [[Temperament naming|named]] something fun like “waterslide” or “jinglebells” even if it has lots of error, over one named something dry and bland like “countertrihexakleismatic” even if it’s super [[damage|accurate]] and [[badness|technically better]] - a bland name can kill a temperament’s appeal, a fun name can create appeal out of nothing. | * '''Importance of common names:''' I would prefer to use a temperament [[Temperament naming|named]] something fun like “waterslide” or “jinglebells” even if it has lots of error, over one named something dry and bland like “countertrihexakleismatic” even if it’s super [[damage|accurate]] and [[badness|technically better]] - a bland name can kill a temperament’s appeal, a fun name can create appeal out of nothing. | ||
* '''My opinion on which intervals matter in a tuning system/the criteria for a good general-purpose tuning:''' | |||
::: [[User:BudjarnLambeth/The intervals I see as important]] | |||
* '''My opinion on zeta peak indexes:''' My view on to what degree [[zeta peak index]]es are useful or not. | * '''My opinion on zeta peak indexes:''' My view on to what degree [[zeta peak index]]es are useful or not. | ||