Microtonal odd-metre composing for the Buchla 200e

This video shows my approach to composing using just intonation and odd metre on the Buchla 200e. A few viewers had requested such a video.
The starting point is the scale. I work with just intonation, because I want my music to sound consonant. With careful selection of intervals, you can get a heptatonic scale where nearly every interval within the scale will sound consonant, which is useful when you are confined to using onboard sequencers, or wanting to make generative patches.
I am currently working on a selection of pieces based around the number seven. The intervals used are mostly seven limit, but I have had to stretch to 11-limit tuning to obtain a harmonious heptatonic scale. The rhythm is also based on seven, and the sequencers repeat after seven bars.
The full piece, Seven Puffs of Smoke can be seen here: • Seven Puffs of Smoke
New album, The Village Pond, available on 12" vinyl through Bandcamp: thesonnydownsq...
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[@fablesofsilence]

🙏 I am glad you are sharing your approach!

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

Thanks for watching!

[@mtommy84]

I never get tired of this. Amazing

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

Glad someone out there is listening! Microtonality is pretty niche haha

[@silviusandu6236]

Amazing stuff, I have the 252e but there are not much materials or manual to explain the programming, where I can find more about the spider and any detailed materials, that will be gold, thanks a lot, keep up the great work and music.

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

Glad it was helpful :) The 252 is actually pretty easy to programme, but I find all buchla modules to be intuitive

[@jericho2x2]

Thank you so much for sharing this! I will give this a try when I got time. There seems to be so much to discover beyond equal temparament.

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

Indeed, the possibilities are vast!

[@danobrien3292]

Okay, I think I have a better understanding. Your notes indicate that you wanted to use the 7-limit tuning as you are focused on the number 7, but you needed more candidates for your scale so you also relied on some 11-limit tuning intervals. You then create your scale by placing your 7 primary intervals on the axis of your tonality "diamond". You then calculated the distance between intervals following the diagonal until two on opposing axis intersect. This distance is just "x-interval" minus "y-interval" but since we are working with ratios and fractions, we divide the smaller fraction into the larger fraction; which is accomplished by multiplying the inverse of the smaller ratio times the larger ratio. This distance also becomes a consonant ratio that will will be converted into a frequency and used in your scale. This is the purpose of this exercise, to create a scale, I used all of these giving me 45 frequencies that work together with very little dissonance. Thanks for putting this together.

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

Hi Dan! I filled out the matrix manually, calculating every possible interval in the scale. If you use a common prime number in either the numerator or the denominator for your scale, you will mostly end up with consonant intervals. Everything I learnt about just intonation is neatly summarised in this book by David Doty. www.dbdoty.com/Words/Primer1.html You are right, the only way to calculate the CV values for the pitches is to use a tuning device and then write down the values. I have pages and pages of CV values which will be only applicable to my synth.

[@danobrien3292]

Thank you for steering me to this presentation, it's fantastic. I do have a couple of questions. I know you are working with heptatonic scales but how did you land on these particular intervals? How did you determine all the possible intervals within this scale? What is the significance of tracing the diagonal, which in your example gave us a major third. What is your point; is it that when a sequence moves from 7/5 to 7/4 it will sound like a major third? Are these leading candidates for opposing sequences? On the other hand, are you saying when the sequences land on intervals at the same time, we get a new tone as the result of the two tones being played at the same time some are disonate which resolve to consonant tone qualities? On the spreadsheet, is TWG1&2 oscillator set at a higher frequency than CWG1&2? at 560hz, the cents are vastly different. In the end, I'd love to create beautiful scales such as this one, but for all I have studied I can't figure out where to begin. Thanks for all your help...

[@formaquadra]

Cool! I'll try to test this on my buchla 200e, even if with no music theory i think it will be not so easy to understand....😅

[@thesonnydownsquartet9340]

The theory is not so hard to understand. I recommend The Just Intonation Primer: JI can readily be understood with a few hours of reading :)