Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

A long-winded way of saying that if you want to hit the 3:2 and 4:3 sweet spots "closely enough", dividing the octave into 12 logarithmically equidistant bins works very well, and better than any other number of bins less than 50 (or maybe 30).


Actually, 41 has a better 4th and 5th, only being off by about half a cent, as opposed to being off by about 2 cents. It also has thirds and sixths that are quite a bit better (though still not great), and it has very good 7-limit intervals, which is something 12-EDO has nothing even remotely close to.

31 is generally decent all around, but it has worse 4ths and 5ths than 12-EDO.

53 EDO is even better than 41, having 4ths and 5ths that are off by about 7 hundredths of a cent. It also has much better 3rds and 6ths than 41, but the 7-limit intervals are slightly worse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31_equal_temperament#Interval_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41_equal_temperament#Interval_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/53_equal_temperament#Interval_...


I guess I could imagine a piano that is 53/12 times the size of a current piano, but I wouldn't want to have to play it :)


The H-Pi Tonal Plexus is 205-EDO, and reasonably playable as far as I know. I'm not sure what the biggest version is, but it's about 6 or 7 octaves.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: