Arithmetic tuning: Difference between revisions

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OS and AFS are equivalent to taking an overtone series and adding (or subtracting) a constant amount of frequency. By doing this, the step sizes remain equal in frequency, but their relationship in pitch changes. For a detailed explanation of this, see the later section on the [[OS#Derivation|derivation of OS]].

The same principles that were just described for frequency are also possible for length: by varying the undertone series step size to some rational number you can produce a utonal sequence (US), and varying it to an irrational number you can produce an arithmetic length sequence (ALS). In other words, by shifting the undertone series by a constant amount of string length, the step sizes remain equal in terms of length, but their relationship in pitch changes.

Note that because frequency is the inverse of length, if a frequency lower than the root pitch's frequency is asked for, the length will be greater than 1; at this point the physical analogy to a length of string breaks down somewhat, since it is not easy to imagine dynamically extending the length of a string to accommodate such pitches. However, it is not much of a stretch (pun intended) to tolerate lengths > 1, if the analogy is adapted to a switching from one string to another, and any string length imaginable is instantly available.

=== Divisions ===

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 OS and AFS are equivalent to taking an overtone series and adding (or subtracting) a constant amount of frequency. By doing this, the step sizes remain equal in frequency, but their relationship in pitch changes. For a detailed explanation of this, see the later section on the [[OS#Derivation|derivation of OS]].
 The same principles that were just described for frequency are also possible for length: by varying the undertone series step size to some rational number you can produce a utonal sequence (US), and varying it to an irrational number you can produce an arithmetic length sequence (ALS). In other words, by shifting the undertone series by a constant amount of string length, the step sizes remain equal in terms of length, but their relationship in pitch changes.
+Note that because frequency is the inverse of length, if a frequency lower than the root pitch's frequency is asked for, the length will be greater than 1; at this point the physical analogy to a length of string breaks down somewhat, since it is not easy to imagine dynamically extending the length of a string to accommodate such pitches. However, it is not much of a stretch (pun intended) to tolerate lengths > 1, if the analogy is adapted to a switching from one string to another, and any string length imaginable is instantly available.
 === Divisions ===