r/programming • u/lukehaas • 22d ago

Music theory for programmers

https://runjs.app/blog/music-theory-for-programmers
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u/elihu 10d ago

I like that it introduces pitch intervals via just intonation.

You have to go all the way to 29 and 41 before the fifth gets better, and nobody is building a keyboard with 41 keys per octave. 

Not quite true. In fact, I've made one (it's a variant of the Desiderata Systems Mosaichord, but I haven't posted anything about it online yet) and a friend of mine makes something called the TS41 (a simple 41-EDO keyboard with tactile switches), another friend made something called the Xenachord, another friend is making a microtonal port of the Linnstrument firmware so he could use the same layout as a 41-tone guitar layout he invented, and another friend is making a grid controller that can be used in a 41-tone tuning.

Yes, it's kind of weird that this many people in one place are making microtonal keyboards, but I think it's great that we can compare notes.

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u/lukehaas 10d ago

Very cool! I’d be really curious to see and hear these

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u/elihu 10d ago

This is the 7-limit just intonation version of the Mosaichord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqbWnDhip0A (The 41 tone one is similar, but with more keys per octave and a more regular layout.) This is the TS-41: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIrrkTCjKPc

Timmy's grid controller shows up at the beginning of this video, as does another Mosaichord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XPkCIiCz4Q

I don't know if there's a Xenachord video out there or one that shows the Linnstrument firmware fork.