cool music

justly intoned

xenharmony 01

Just Intonation

Xenharmony 3

One of my earliest microtonal compositions from 2003, and possibly one of my "greatest hits" for sure. People love this one....it's for sampled recorder and harpsichord, and uses 19edo (19 equal steps per octave). 

The Juggler

This is a chiptune-type piece I wrote in 2009, based on my daughter's imaginary characters (played by her fingers, acting as puppets). It uses Csound to evoke something approaching an 8-bit style (purests may disagree, since I used band-limited oscillators!)...neverthess, I hope you enjoy this piece.

Puhlops and Laugua's Big Adventure

This is an etude for imaginary piano (realized in Csound using my own 'microcsound' software) using 17-edo (17 equal slices of pitch per octave). The intervals of a 6th are mostly 'neutral' 6ths, with occasional 17-edo version of major-6ths.

Etude in neutral sixths

This track was written to demonstrate the harmonic possibilities of using higher harmonics freely whenever the composer wishes, without the bounds of a traditional scale, but within the bounds of major/minor/seventh harmony. It is also quite funky!

Harmonics of 11ths, 13th, 23rds etc are prominent in this composition, without being overwhelming in their unusualness. The highest prime harmonic used was the 127th harmonic in the final melody! E#''' was also used (125th harmonic)

It was written using a new notation system which has been devised to make accessing higher harmonics as intuitive as possible (it still takes a bit of getting one's head around!). Please contact me if you would like to see the score written in this notation system, or for details about how this notation system enables interesting harmonic composition outside of the bounds of the Western 12-note scale to be realised.

It qualifies for chiptune since although it is (much to my shame) 16-bit 44100Hz audio instead of the pure 8-bit, the sounds were synthesised from scratch using modified sin/saw waves, with a bit of band-limited noise thrown in for good measure. The synth took as input CSV 6xN matrices as sequence files, and processed in Octave/MATLAB to give MP3 output which you hear here.
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update 10th Apr 2015:

Here is a brief description of how the MP3 track was generated:

Just Intonation Notes (1/1 4/3 7/4 etc) <-> New Notation System (C F `Bb~7 etc) which is easier to read than pure numbers and where the letter corresponds (roughly) to the position in the 12ET scale
-> Excel block of chords and melody notes for visual presentation to composer (.txt)
-> Excel long (~1700 columns) of calculated note letters, frequencies, note lengths, etc
-> Excel final sequence file with 6 columns: channel, start time, frequency, note length, loudness, stereo position (.csv)
-> Octave/MATLAB code to take the 6 columns and turn them into chiptune (.mp3 or .wav)
-> Sometimes extra post processing in Audacity for final .wav

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See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Sonata 1 'Cheery' - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned

This is a justly intoned arrangement of J. S. Bach's Prelude in C Major, the first Prelude of the 48 Preludes and Fugues, a body of work by Bach which demonstrated that with tempered tunings every major and minor key was usable.

As well as being one of my favourite pieces of music, I thought it would be worthwhile to demonstrate that this music sounds just as interesting (maybe more interesting!) in Just Intonation (JI), where exclusively rationally-spaced intervals are used. JI is the natural way of tuning intervals. It derived from harmonic series, which are produced by string and wind instruments.

Due to the 'wrap-around' nature of tempered tunings, some transitions (e.g. D minor to G major) are good transitions in tempered tunings, but sound 'further away' or less harmonious in JI. Also, transitions from ,D' to `D (10/9 to 9/8) and from C to `C~7 (1/1 to 63/64) are noticeably microtonal shifts. Some people might like them, some might not. Personally, I like them. The major advantage is the purity of all the triads and seventh chords, which in my opinion outweigh the 'disadvantages' of having noticeable microtonality.

As always, I've slipped in an 11th and 13th harmonic (the 11th is obvious, the 13th less so). I refuse to write any new music which does not contain both 11th and 13th harmonics.

Another interesting feature was Bach's usage of diminished chords. My favourite justly intoned diminished chord is the sequence 10:12:14:17:20:24:28:34:40 etc. Hence, some 17th harmonics have been used, wherever there is a diminished chord, in both 17/1 and 1/17 formats (and 5/17).

Hence, this track contains all the harmonics 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17. I will attempt to remedy the lack of 19, 23, ..., 127th harmonics in my next upload.

Enjoy!

Dave

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Bach number of this track: BWV846 or BWV 846

See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Bach BWV846 Prelude in C major - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned

This is a justly intoned arrangement of Chopin's Etude in C Major (Opus 10, No. 1), the first Etude of his series of Etudes which demonstrated his new piano performance techniques.

Although Etudes are usually technical exercises, Chopin's are special since they are immensely listenable with intricate harmonies.

I have retuned Chopin's harmony to have much more than 12 notes to the scale. More to come (hopefully soon!) about the notes which have been used. Concisely, the major and minor triads and sevenths have almost everywhere been preserved, and Chopin's use of sequences leads the harmony down very interesting and long paths in the 7-limit tonal lattice. A couple of jarring transitions are where the harmony jumps up by a syntonic comma (or 7-limit comma). As always, 11th and 13th harmonics are smuggled in, in some of the diminished chords near the end.

Enjoy!

Dave

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See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Chopin Etude in C Major - Op. 10, No. 1 - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned

Stevie Wonder has written a great song - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. But those amazing harmonies are crying out for something - Just Intonation!

By using my new notation system to convert his piano scale harmonies to natural harmonics, a purer and more interesting harmonic structure is revealed.

As always, the underused 11th and 13th harmonics are hidden in this retuning (in the intro section using neutral thirds)

Enjoy! Dave

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See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Stevie Wonder - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned

This is a justly intoned arrangement of J. S. Bach's Prelude in C Sharp Major, the third Prelude of the 48 Preludes and Fugues, a body of work by Bach which demonstrated that with tempered tunings every major and minor key was usable. It was made using a custom sequencer in Excel+Octave which allowed exact frequencies to be specified.

'Normalised commas' mean that the piece was composed in simple Just Intonation by specifying local frequency ratios, the most important of which are major (4:5:6) and minor (10:12:15) triads locally. However, between different sections they may be out of tune by microtonal commas (e.g. 81/80) and to fix this the different sections need to be stitched together by multiplying the later section by an accumulation of commas. This means that we get 'comma travel' so the piece moves sharp or flat in frequency. To fix this second issue, the commas can be normalised by dividing out by a local moving average of the accumulated commas.

By comparing this normalised version to the 'comma travel' version, it is easy to detect this movement in pitch. The commas on this track were normalised over 48 beats (8 bars).

Accumulation of commas, normalised or unnormalised, will be explained further in my second JI maths/music paper - pending! The theme of it is how to take any sheet music and retune it into JI using comma alterations, mainly of 5th and 7th harmonics. However, as always, in this track I've snuk in some 11th and 13th harmonics which you might be able to locate by ear or by examining the code blocks in Github (upload pending as of 9th Nov 2015).

Enjoy!

Dave

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Bach number of this track: BWV848 or BWV 848

See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Bach BWV848 Prelude in C Sharp Major - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned, Normalised Commas

Show me your moves! Falcon quotes aside, here is an F-Zero cover I did recently. I wanted to do a more synth orientated cover for my next VGM cover and so I ended up picking “Silence”, from the first F-Zero game on the SNES. It was also a case of me really wanting to do an F-Zero cover as it’s one of my favourite gaming franchises. Whilst GX is my favourite game in the series, I really dig this song and thought it would make for an interesting rendition. 

I’m very proud of the outcome of this cover. The sounds I got out of the keyboard were perfect and set up a nice sci-fi synth vibe. I also managed to play the bass part with fingers competently, considering I am still a novice on bass, especially when playing with fingers. And I’m very pleased with how the trumpet section in the original track translates nicely onto guitars, as well as the rhythm guitar I wrote for this rendition. As I am still learning about mixing I also believe I did a decent job with the mixing, doing the best I could with what I knew and what I had. 

Hope you like my cover and stay tuned for more VGM covers in future.

F-Zero is the property of Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo. 

Equipment used:

Interface: Lexicon Alpha USB
DAW: Cubase LE 5
Drums: MT PowerDrumKit 2 (Drumming assembled in drum editor)
Bass: Ibanez GSR180-BK
Bass amp sim: AudioAssualt Bassgrinder VST
Keyboard: Yamaha PSR-200
Rhythm & Lead Guitars: Epiphone Les Paul Standard
Harmony Guitars: Ibanez GRG270B
Guitar amp sim: Peavey Revalver HPse

F-Zero - Silence (Synth/Metal Cover)

This is a justly intoned arrangement of the Allegro from W. A. Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major (K545).

The Allegro has two main parts. Each part is repeated, giving the opportunity to try out two different tunings on each part. The first time through, sensible tunings (mostly 7-limit) are used which stick quite closely to what Mozart wrote. The second time through its (WARNING!) a bit avant-garde. I chucked a lot of prime commas in, and detuned/retuned notes in a very trigger-happy way. This will displease as many people as it pleases, and I welcome both positive feedback as well as criticism of my wantonness. Feel free to comment just below the track!

The overall tuning is 3049-limit JI, and the following primes are used: 3049, 2029, 1847, 1823, 1811, 1543, 1471, 1303, 1277, 1049, 1031, 1021, 823, 787, 761, 757, 631, 617, 503, 449, 431, 383, 317, 313, 307, 283, 271, 269, 257, 241, 239, 211, 193, 191, 181, 179, 167, 157, 127, 113, 109 and all the primes from 2 to 97. In addition, some of my audience have complained (BOO!) about introducing pitch bends into classical music (HISS!) so I have not really used pitch bends here, except for once very prominently in order to annoy them, and delight everyone else.

Same sequencer as before:
- Sheet music printed, prime commas annotated, also comma normalisation noted (4 seconds was used in the final version)
- Transcribed into Excel spreadsheet
- Saved to CSV
- Imported into custom MATLAB/Octave sequencer
- Each track sequenced using sawtooths of 3 different decay rates
- Exported as 9 WAV files (3 per track, 3 tracks)
- Imported into Audacity, processed with 3 levels of reverb
- Bit at the end where it sounds like the plug being pulled out. I like that

Enjoy!

Dave

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See also:
- https://arxiv.org/a/ryan_d_1 (arXiv) for a list of my academic paper pre-prints, including my writing on music theory and Just Intonation
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4785-9766 (ORC ID) for my academic profile
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidryan59 for my LinkedIn profile

Mozart Piano Sonata 16 (K545) in nicely-tuned Just Intonation with (WARNING!) avant-garde repeats

 It uses all 6 of the original ancient Solfeggio frequencies.  396hz, 471hz, 528hz, 639hz, 741hz, 852hz This song is a full tuning session and is perfect for meditation and kundalini exercises.

Total Intention 2010 - 6 Ancient Solfeggio Healing Frequencies

The tuning is 17-note-per-octave equal temperament. This scale has very reasonable "perfect" fifths, but no usable major or minor third. The "neutral third" is used extensively. PLEASE download the hi-res mp3 and listen to it. Soundcloud's 128 kbps streaming is utterly bogus for synthesizer music, so if you listen using the playback widget on this page, you won't be hearing the mix in anything like a pristine form!

The Teeth of Desire

This piece uses a scale with 31 equal-tempered steps per octave. 31ET has very good triads and 7th chords, so it almost sounds like our familiar 12-note scale, only better. PLEASE download the hi-res mp3 for listening -- Soundcloud's 128 kbps streaming audio is not good enough for synthesizer music.

A Very Slow Carousel

Day 6 - Minty Fresh Snow

Disclaimer:  Some sources say that those with epilepsy, those with heart conditions, pregnant women, and children should avoid binaural beats.  Use your own intuition and judgment when deciding whether or not to listen.

Description:  This track is tuned to 528 hz and creates a beat of 10 hz, in the Alpha range.  Alpha brainwaves are associated with relaxed alertness, increased creativity and learning ability.

Kaleidoscope (Alpha Binaural Beat - 10 hz -- see description before listening)

Subharmonic techniques in just intonation.

Ray Minor

Synth cover of aquatic ambience from Donkey Kong Country. My favorite game soundtrack. Sometime I put on the SNES and just let it sit in this level. I used the microbrute, microkorg, behringer model d (only for withe noise) and volca keys.

Donkey Kong - Aquatic Ambience (Synth cover)

DOWNLOAD

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum - Eterna City(Solo Piano)

s3xmoditminia entry - Round 1
arena.sincx.xyz/battle.php?id=23

dj-jamster-PSYCHIQ - GOOD FEEL (LIVE @ THE METAL TANK 2000/07/07 (RARE EXTENDED MIX)).mp3

*Remastered 08-08-2018*

Get a tune up in 14 minutes with high fidelity recordings of the solfeggio tuning forks and the weighted OM tuner.  Each tuning fork was allowed to ring out .. however, even though there appears to be silence there is still a very quiet frequency playing before the next fork is sounded... and due to their different vibratory degradation period they are different lengths of sound..  

The tuning begins with the grounding OM hum, then 396hz, 417hz, 528hz, 639hz, 741hz, 852hz then "Holy Harmony" all forks together 3x, OM hum again, "Holy Harmony" 3x, then back down through the frequencies ... 852hz, 741hz, 639hz, 528hz, 417hz, 396hz ending in OM...

You'll notice an oscillation or a rapid panning happening from ear to ear... this has been set to 7.83hz, the schumman resonance.  Volume should be a medium to start... 

The tuning can be just listened to.. or can be used to meditate with.  The track is set up as a chakra balancing or chakra tune up sequencing... so the tones can be used to focus energy on each chakra as in our chakra balancing tracks. 

This is powerful stuff... however, can be very subtly affecting you at a cellular level unbeknownst to you!  Just know, that if you feel emotional... or if you feel "musical frission" all over shivers... or if you twitch.... maybe nothing at all happens... it's all good!  Allow it to flow out!  It's all working though you in a perfect way... because these frequencies are pure, like the emanations of our hearts.  Also, the more you use this tuneup, the more it begins to affect you in tangible ways.  Using it daily for a week, one is likely to really feel something shifting in their lives.  I am compelled to also mention that if you focus on geometry, symmetry and/or hexagons ... and just breathe through your heart ... magick happens ;)

Please let us know how you feel...  <3

http://www.SoundLoveAlchemy.ca
http://www.OMMMReikiMi.com
http://www.LoveFire.ca
http://www.shylolove.com

PS: Don't be surprised if you start hearing the frequencies in your head... or in the store... or from the forest.... ;)

Get a Tune up!  14 minute Ancient Solfeggio Frequency Tuning Forks Only Meditation

Title track of my album that you can download here:
http://www.seraph.it/blog_files/9a58ec270939f33b70f9db0d76cabfae-90.html

Gammatar

I'm into Just Intonation (JI), which is using harmonics (or undertones) to generate music. Over time, my profile will fill up with wonderful and melodious New Harmony, fresh from the infinite vaults of the original and best source of harmony, Just Intonation.

I’ve written some papers on the music theory of Just Intonation. You can check them out via the arXiv link below. Topics include the mathematical analysis of harmony (in Just Intonation), and a notation system to cover all of Just Intonation.

Enjoy listening!

Bach BWV846 Prelude in C major - Chip Synth, Justly Intoned

David Ryan