UD: Difference between revisions

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Cmloegcmluin (talk | contribs)
provide descending pitch version for utonal
Cmloegcmluin (talk | contribs)
note about >1 lengths
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An [[EDL|n-EDL]] is equivalent to a 2n-UDO (therefore EDL cannot be used to represent a UDO with an odd value for n).
An [[EDL|n-EDL]] is equivalent to a 2n-UDO (therefore EDL cannot be used to represent a UDO with an odd value for n).
It is possible to — instead of equally dividing the octave in 12 equal parts by pitch — divide it into 12 equal parts by length. You will have 12-ELDO. However, that's not exactly ideal because, as with arithmetic sequences, different acronyms are used to distinguish rational (JI) tunings from irrational (non-JI) tunings, and so ELD are typically reserved for irrational tunings, such as 12-ELDφ. So it would be more appropriate to name this tuning 12-UDO, for utonal divisions of the octave.
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.


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Revision as of 22:32, 23 March 2021

A UD, or utonal division, is a kind of arithmetic and harmonotonic tuning.

Its full specification is n-UDp: n utonal divisions of rational interval p. An n-UDO is equivalent to the nth undertone mode, or under-n scale.

The only difference between n-UDp and n-ELDp (equal length division) is that the p for UD is rational, while the p for ELD is irrational.

Your sequence will be equivalent to some US (utonal sequence). E.g. 8-UD7 = 8-US3/4, because to get from 1 to 7 you cover 6 undertones, and 6 divided by 8 is 3/4.

An n-EDL is equivalent to a 2n-UDO (therefore EDL cannot be used to represent a UDO with an odd value for n).

It is possible to — instead of equally dividing the octave in 12 equal parts by pitch — divide it into 12 equal parts by length. You will have 12-ELDO. However, that's not exactly ideal because, as with arithmetic sequences, different acronyms are used to distinguish rational (JI) tunings from irrational (non-JI) tunings, and so ELD are typically reserved for irrational tunings, such as 12-ELDφ. So it would be more appropriate to name this tuning 12-UDO, for utonal divisions of the octave.

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.

example: 4-UDO = 4th undertone mode (arranged so that the pitches are in ascending order and still begin on 1/1)
quantity (0) 1 2 3 4
frequency (f) (1/1) 8/7 4/3 8/5 2/1
pitch (log₂f) (0) 0.19 0.42 0.68 1.00
length (1/f) (8/8) 7/8 6/8 5/8 4/8
example: 4-UDO = 4th undertone mode (descending pitches)
quantity (0) 1 2 3 4
frequency (f) (1/1) 4/5 2/3 4/7 1/2
pitch (log₂f) (0) -0.32 -0.58 -0.81 -1.00
length (1/f) (4/4) 5/4 6/4 7/4 8/4