Post by @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz

Merry Xmas Eve!

I'm not Christian, I'm Mathematician, but I love Xmas, Ymas and Zmas. I'm giving a talk on the math of tuning systems and I thought I'd share it here as a kind of present to y'all.

I'll start with the basics today and do the more advanced part tomorrow. But I hope even the basics contain a few twists that not everyone knows.

You can read my slides here:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/tuning_talk/tuning_talk.pdf

but they don't contain all the stuff I'm saying here... the stuff I'll say out loud in my talk.

(1/n)

Petra

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez

I have read your thread and, despite being neither a mathemetician or a musician, I found it fascinating!

Thank you for sharing

John Carlos Baez

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@PetraPhoenix - thanks!

Pol Dellaiera

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez Beautiful presentation !!! congratulations.

John Carlos Baez

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@Pol - thanks! Practicing it here will help me give my talk.

Pol Dellaiera

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez I wish I could attend it :)

The Right Irreverend

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez Praise Gödel! Will your talk be available for us acolytes to peruse post presentation? Your few slides here point to a clearer look at tuning than I’ve seen before. Your math perspective appears to clear up some of the stuff going on with those fractions, I mean, ratios…

Ron Jeffries

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez
I love this! Thanks! Now I need to find a way to hear the tones as I read.

John Carlos Baez

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@RonJeffries - yeah, I wish I were smart enough to make a webpage of this talk where you could just click on things and hear them.

Here are some good fifths (3/2) and some "wolf fifths" (3/2 divided by the Pythagorean comma). Can you tell which is which?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7lWINJ9Dxxg

Wolf Fifth

YouTube

Ron Jeffries

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez
I assume the ones that hurt my ears are the wolf ones, but some seemed less awful than others. I'll browse some channels.

Good stuff, I'm delighted!

John Carlos Baez

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@RonJeffries - I hope the ones that hurt your ears are the ones that hurt mine! The ones that hurt my hears are the wolf fifths. Instead of a frequency ratio of 1.5, they should have a ratio of about 1.48. That's enough off to be terrible.

the roamer

@[email protected] · 5 months ago

@johncarlosbaez

Fascinating thread, deeply enjoyable. Thank you!