User:Mousemambo/Workbench: Difference between revisions

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* [https://producelikeapro.com/blog/getting-started-making-microtonal-music/ Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think.].. also archived here as [[Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think]]
* [https://producelikeapro.com/blog/getting-started-making-microtonal-music/ Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think.].. also archived here as [[Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think]]
* [https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/microtuning-and-alternative-intonation-systems Microtuning and Alternative Intonation Systems], by [[Jacky Ligon]]. MIDI.org (website), Sep 2020.
* [https://www.midi.org/midi-articles/microtuning-and-alternative-intonation-systems Microtuning and Alternative Intonation Systems], by [[Jacky Ligon]]. MIDI.org (website), Sep 2020.
* CronoX 2 User Guide 1.02.sdw, Appendix A: Using TUN Files, by Jacky Ligon. ([https://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/Scala_TUN_Tutorial.pdf PDF])
* CronoX 2 User Guide 1.02.sdw, Appendix A: Using TUN Files, by Jacky Ligon. 2003. ([https://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/Scala_TUN_Tutorial.pdf PDF])
* [[wikipedia:MIDI_tuning_standard|MIDI tuning standard]] Wikipedia.
* [https://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/scl_format.html Scala scale file (.SCL) format specification]. Huygens-Fokker Foundation (website)
* [https://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/help.htm#mappings Scala keyboard mapping file (.KBM) format specification]. Huygens-Fokker Foundation (website)
* [https://www.mizzan.de/anamark-format Anamark tuning file (.TUN) format]. Mizzen Microtonal Piano (website).
* ... more to be added
* ... more to be added


Revision as of 21:50, 3 August 2023

Mousemambo's workbench for ideas and projects. Questions? Please use his Talk page or contact him through XenHarmonic Alliance's Discord server #wiki channel.

Project ideas

  • User:Mousemambo/Tuning methods. Add this new major page (or set of pages). I will note that there are excellent existing resources, like the Making Microtonal Music is Easier Than You’d Think page archived here from its original source. The problem with these is that they go out of date easily. Therefore, I am proposing a wiki solution that will be available for community maintenance including significant updates as appropriate.
  • Add "See: Tuning file" (or See: Tuning methods) as appropriate in the articles that currently reference them.
  • Add some "how to" information for people just beginning their journey, either as additions to existing pages or by creating new ones as appropriate. E.g. How to use tuning files, how to select which ones, how to get your electronic or software instrument to use one. These types of pages live in Category:Guides.
  • Category: Tuning methods. A category that would encompass all articles about how electronic instruments are made to adhere to alternative (non-12-EDO) tunings. "Practical tuning" or "Tuning practices" or Tuning mechanisms" or "Tuning technique" (currently in use but deprecated with redirect) or "Tuning practice" are alternatives perhaps? I note that the current Category:Tuning is about the theoretical side and not at all the practical side. However, it might instead be best to stick everything in Tuning, practical and theoretical, although that's not the direction I currently lean toward. I'd rather see "Tuning methods" offered as a category on the Category:Tuning page, and hide all the "methods" pages in there.
  • User:Mousemambo/Indian music. Replace the existing article "Indian" which, by the way, has a strange and dismaying page title (see below). Provide some history and current usage of tuning selections in the various branches of Indian music, and links to outside information.

Practical Tuning for Beginners pages

Below is a list of existing pages (still expanding by search, as of August 2023) relevant to beginners who want to set their electronic instruments to other than 12-EDO tuning. Synth/sampler manuals frequently don't provide enough background information, instead assuming you already know something about tuning files.

It's useful to consider the trajectory of beginners newly arriving at the wiki. The wiki's front page has a section "If you are new to musical tuning" that doesn't get into practical how-to issues, but the page also has a very appropriate and helpful section "Practical xenharmonics" (Useful Tools, List of microtonal software plugins, Microtonal instruments). "Useful tools" simply redirects to the "List of music software" page, which seems sensible if inconsistent.

Related to that visitor's initial likely trajectory, note that the wiki's main sidebar also includes a section "Practice" with links underneath to some essential starting points for people seeking practical tuning guidance, especially "Software" and (of less relevance to this work) "Pedagogy." Also in that sidebar, "Useful Tools" (redirects to List of music software) is listed under "Theory" which is odd unless you know how useful the "practice" tools are for better understanding theory.

Also, there are some not (yet) totally outdated pages out beyond the Xenharmonic wiki that are worth learning from:

Outline for a Tuning Methods page

This is a proposal for a new page "Tuning methods" or an eventual set of pages. I've moved it onto its own page.

Indian music

Existing pages addressing microtonality in various branches of Indian music (e.g. Hindustani classical, Hindustani semi-classical, Carnatic classical, Sikh, Odissi, filmi, etc.):

There is some movement in the music world for moving away from referring to "Indian music" as a broad category, and toward instead referring to South Asian music. This is to distinguish the music primarily or entirely found within the country of India from (admittedly closely related) traditional/classical/artistic, folk, and contemporary music found in the South Asia region but outside India itself. I wouldn't say that movement is strong, but it has a point.

I note that under Category:Traditions all the cultural traditions (not just Indian) are named with strange and somewhat dismaying names that omit the word "music" that should follow. E.g. Indian, Arabic and Greek should sensibly be Indian music, Arabic music, and Greek music. The words "Indian," "Arabic," and "Greek" by themselves can mean a people, a culture, or (except for Indian) a language. These page names and category names should specify "music" or "microtonality" or something else specific. Otherwise they feel very much like they are exoticizing and generalizing traditional cultural musics, much like how 20th century academic Western music theory tends to treat all music outside those by dead Germans as somehow lesser.

The Xenharmonic Wiki is not intended to address general aspects of music or to duplicate Wikipedia, but instead to focus on issues of musical tuning. There is a huge amount of historical and contemporary writing about tuning within the various Indian music branches, subject to very heated debate. Western academic study tends to ignore or not realize that many tunings advanced Indian musicians are aware of and discuss are merely historical (e.g. Shadja gram), although there have been major documented changes in Indian tuning systems over the last 2000 years. Also, past Western academics frequently ignored or weren't aware of the important differences between Hindustani and Carnatic music theories, which have been very distinct for a few hundred years although they developed from the same roots and use many of the same words (sometimes to mean different things!).

It's rather amazing how often writings (including by Indian musicians) never indicate whether they're referring to historical tunings, tunings used by contemporary Hindustani musicians, or contemporary Carnatic ones. Much less do they make reference to the many gharanas (houses/schools) of the north or the many guru-shishya music parampara banis (lineages) of the south, which may each use rather different terminologies sharing the same words, and therefore totally confuse those not aware of that fact. Complicated!

Toolkit

All user sub-pages

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