Show HN: Tune.js – A microtonal web audio library with 3300 historical tunings

@Zuider, I am very familiar with Scala! In fact, the scales contained in the Tune.js archive come from the Max Magic Microtuner .mtx archive, which was compiled from the Scala .scl archive. It seems the .scl archive has surpassed the .mtx one, which I think was last updated by Victor Cerullo in 2010. I'll have to try to integrate the new additions to Scala into the tune.js library. I'd also like to add functionality where you can define your own scale. Maybe for version 2.0!

As to your point about pitch variation in microtonal music, that is often the case in a lot of traditional musics that make use of microtones, for sure. It is part of the character of a lot of that music, and some of the Irish music that you mention, to have a lot of subtle variation and microtonal embellishments. I read somewhere that non-fixed pitch instruments, such as violins or the voice, tend toward pure intervals naturally.

But there is a lot of music on fixed pitch microtonal instruments, such as the music and instruments of Harry Partch, La Monte Young's Well Tuned Piano, and refretted guitars.

Lastly, you could definitely program the kind of variation and fluidity into the web audio instruments that you use with tune.js. The demo just uses a piano sample for demonstration, and to have long sustain to hear the microtonal harmonies. I would love to hear this used with more portamento or with a pitch bend function, to get more natural variation.

Thanks for sharing the Irish music links, I'll definitely take a look!

Thank you for using the standard tracker note keys on the demo page! I look forward to exploring the library in more depth.

This is nice. I like how the notes continue to ring, so that they interact with each other. There is a similar application called Scala which has the distinction of being written in Ada. It offers a collection of more than 4500 scales to download.

http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/downloads.html

The one quibble I have with the exploration of scales in this way is that the given pallet of notes is fixed, but most music that that is not based on the even tempered scale involves a lot of pitch variation.

I came across a book in a library once called The Handbook of Irish Music by the Rev Fr. Richard Henebry

http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-collection/henebry-r...

He was probably the first to make field recordings of Irish music on wax cylinder. Using this early recording technology, and a wheel of 100 pitchpipes graded into cents, he transcribed not only the notes played, but also made note of the precise pitch at which each note was played.

His theory, outlined in A Handbook of Irish Music, 1928, was that the character of a piece of music depended on not just the notes, but also the system of intonation, and furthermore tunes were divided into sections using different temperaments which he called 'melodic cells'. He maintained that these gave an extra depth to the performance in a manner parallel to the use of harmony.

http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/print-collection/henebry-a...

As far as I know, nobody has tried to recreate his transcriptions.

When set to xenakis_chrom, "D1 E1 B0 C1 D1 C1 B0 C1 B0 A0 B0 C0" on that piano ends up sounding very familiar :)

Very interesting little library. I'll definitely have to take a look at it.