Yourmusic Productions' opinion of various edos: Difference between revisions
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8EDO: Any combination of more than 2 notes sounds bad, and most 2 note combinations sound bad too. Just vile. | 8EDO: Any combination of more than 2 notes sounds bad, and most 2 note combinations sound bad too. Just vile. | ||
9EDO: Marvellously elegant little system. More than enough room for complex melodies and fortifying them with double-stopped 3rds and 6ths sounds awesome. | 9EDO: Marvellously elegant little system. More than enough room for complex melodies and fortifying them with double-stopped 3rds and 6ths sounds awesome. | ||
10EDO: A universe that's recognisable, but everything is distorted and the people have no faces. The merging of 3rds and 6ths removes one of the primary forms of textural expressiveness in 12, leaving it disconcertingly emotionally flat. | 10EDO: A universe that's recognisable, but everything is distorted and the people have no faces. The merging of 3rds and 6ths removes one of the primary forms of textural expressiveness in 12, leaving it disconcertingly emotionally flat. | ||
11EDO: It can almost pass for 12 as long as you only play one note at at time, but more than that and it's limitations become painfully clear. | 11EDO: It can almost pass for 12 as long as you only play one note at at time, but more than that and it's limitations become painfully clear. | ||
12EDO: The more I study it, the more it's flaws and limitations irritate me. | 12EDO: The more I study it, the more it's flaws and limitations irritate me. | ||
13EDO: All the various kinds of 9thno5 chords work, and have interesting new flavours compared to their 12edo equivalents. Well worth getting to grips with the cluster based harmony needed to make it sound nice. | 13EDO: All the various kinds of 9thno5 chords work, and have interesting new flavours compared to their 12edo equivalents. Well worth getting to grips with the cluster based harmony needed to make it sound nice. | ||
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15EDO: Like 14, not as good at simple harmonies as 12, but some glorious extended blackwood chords that combine more notes than you can in 12 and still sound good. Porcupine looks simpler, but I actually find it more of a struggle than blackwood to use. | 15EDO: Like 14, not as good at simple harmonies as 12, but some glorious extended blackwood chords that combine more notes than you can in 12 and still sound good. Porcupine looks simpler, but I actually find it more of a struggle than blackwood to use. | ||
16EDO: 12's evil twin. Scales are recognisable but inverted and everything but the mellowest of timbres or simplest of harmonies sounds horrible once you start combining notes. | 16EDO: 12's evil twin. Scales are recognisable but inverted and everything but the mellowest of timbres or simplest of harmonies sounds horrible once you start combining notes. | ||
17EDO: Interestingly alien, but with good 2nd's, 4ths & 5ths to retreat too when you're not sure what to do next. | 17EDO: Interestingly alien, but with good 2nd's, 4ths & 5ths to retreat too when you're not sure what to do next. | ||
18EDO: A universe in monochrome, but with extended dynamic range. There's enough complexity in other areas to keep it interesting, but I'm still aware in the back of my mind that something's missing. | 18EDO: A universe in monochrome, but with extended dynamic range. There's enough complexity in other areas to keep it interesting, but I'm still aware in the back of my mind that something's missing. | ||
19EDO: The more I study it, the more I love how elegantly everything fits together, how you can use standard notation, but things that are equivalent in 12 actually have proper meaning here, how familiar tunes are transferable and recognisable but the emphasis on intervals is subtly shifted to making minor chords and melodies sound more stable and consonant than major ones. It still has it's limitations, power chord based heavy rock in particular suffers from the weaker 5ths, but just works so much better than 12 in general. | 19EDO: The more I study it, the more I love how elegantly everything fits together, how you can use standard notation, but things that are equivalent in 12 actually have proper meaning here, how familiar tunes are transferable and recognisable but the emphasis on intervals is subtly shifted to making minor chords and melodies sound more stable and consonant than major ones. It still has it's limitations, power chord based heavy rock in particular suffers from the weaker 5ths, but just works so much better than 12 in general. | ||
20EDO: Looking at the math on paper, it should be possible to create pleasant music in this one, but nothing I've heard has actually managed it yet. | 20EDO: Looking at the math on paper, it should be possible to create pleasant music in this one, but nothing I've heard has actually managed it yet. | ||
21EDO: Like 14 but moreso. Dramatically exaggerated harmonic expressiveness, shares the relatively nice major 3rd with 12 rather than the horrible tritone, and the highest edo that works with standard notation without having to add more letters or learn new kinds of accidental. Not as good as 19 for familiar sounding intervals, but still really rather nice. | 21EDO: Like 14 but moreso. Dramatically exaggerated harmonic expressiveness, shares the relatively nice major 3rd with 12 rather than the horrible tritone, and the highest edo that works with standard notation without having to add more letters or learn new kinds of accidental. Not as good as 19 for familiar sounding intervals, but still really rather nice. | ||
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25EDO: The whole-tone version of 50EDO's golden meantone. Lots and lots of bad options but like 6 vs 12, missing most of the good combinations. | 25EDO: The whole-tone version of 50EDO's golden meantone. Lots and lots of bad options but like 6 vs 12, missing most of the good combinations. | ||
26EDO: Definitely deserves more attention than it's got so far. | 26EDO: Definitely deserves more attention than it's got so far. | ||
27EDO: Like all pure powers of 3, unusually good for it's size. All the melodic coolness of 9 plus decent minor and neutral intervals and an acceptable 5th. Definitely my favourite superpyth system of manageable size. | 27EDO: Like all pure powers of 3, unusually good for it's size. All the melodic coolness of 9 plus decent minor and neutral intervals and an acceptable 5th. Definitely my favourite superpyth system of manageable size. | ||
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28EDO: 14, only with a really in tune major 3rd and lots of other really interesting extra intervals. Really want an instrument that can do this one justice, probably an 8-string guitar tuned in it's slightly stretched 5ths so the top string is 3 octaves up from the bottom, and a 28-30" fanned fret multiscale fretboard that makes all the chords isomorphic. | 28EDO: 14, only with a really in tune major 3rd and lots of other really interesting extra intervals. Really want an instrument that can do this one justice, probably an 8-string guitar tuned in it's slightly stretched 5ths so the top string is 3 octaves up from the bottom, and a 28-30" fanned fret multiscale fretboard that makes all the chords isomorphic. | ||
29EDO: 12's evil twin, but in an awesome way. About the same amount of error but in opposite directions means similar kinds of psychoacoustic beating, majors and minors are still clearly recognisable, and everything sounds deceptively familiar right up until it does something awesome that 12 can't. When you do focus on xen intervals and chords, it still sounds much better than 24. Another definite favourite. | 29EDO: 12's evil twin, but in an awesome way. About the same amount of error but in opposite directions means similar kinds of psychoacoustic beating, majors and minors are still clearly recognisable, and everything sounds deceptively familiar right up until it does something awesome that 12 can't. When you do focus on xen intervals and chords, it still sounds much better than 24. Another definite favourite. | ||
30EDO: Whole tone + Blackwood. Like 24, mainly just adds more ways to sound bad compared to 15 and not worth the hassle. | 30EDO: Whole tone + Blackwood. Like 24, mainly just adds more ways to sound bad compared to 15 and not worth the hassle. | ||
31EDO: It definitely sounds nice, but I don't hear much actual songwriting going on in it, just people building enormous washes of harmony and luxuriating in them. Maybe it has too LITTLE tension in it, or maybe it's just past the point of complexity that the human mind can fully comprehend. In any case, it definitely hasn't been used to it's full potential yet. | 31EDO: It definitely sounds nice, but I don't hear much actual songwriting going on in it, just people building enormous washes of harmony and luxuriating in them. Maybe it has too LITTLE tension in it, or maybe it's just past the point of complexity that the human mind can fully comprehend. In any case, it definitely hasn't been used to it's full potential yet. | ||