[sdiy] Frequency Counter Software

[Grant Richter]

I hope I gave no offense.

I did not mean to imply that ultra-stable pitch is undesireable! Only  
that it is no substitute for musicianship.
Every musician will have to "wing it" through at least one show with  
technical problems.
(I'm preaching to the choir here).

I went to see a Medeval Recorder Consort play outdoors in 51 degF  
temperature.
They had to retune between songs, and that was with a hunk of wood.
But no one wanted to cancel the concert because of it.

On Oct 11, 2005, at 12:06 AM, Ian Fritz wrote:

> Hi Grant --
>
> No argument with any of your excellent points.  Just a couple of  
> additional observations:
>
> First, much of the "interesting" character of acoustic instruments  
> comes from note-to-note inaccuracies in intonation and unevenness  
> in timber.  You never get these with a typical Volt/Oct analog  
> setup, regardless of accuracy/drift characteristics (except if you  
> go to extremes to allow variation in detuning of the individual  
> notes of the scale).  Getting to this level of musical character is  
> best done through MIDI.  For example, review Bouvard Hosticka's  
> elect-ro-clar, a MIDIfied clarinet with several different built-in  
> scales, taken from measurements on real clarinets.
>
> Second, if you start with accurate, stable VCOs you can add  
> variable (time-dependent) detuning to obtain the character you  
> want.  If you have built-in inaccuracies and drift, then you are  
> stuck with those and cannot as easily tailor the detuning to  
> different needs.
>
> Also, with stable VCOs you avoid the need to retune frequently and  
> the danger that the pitch drifts too much on you while doing  
> multiple takes, etc..
>
>   Ian
>
>
>
> At 09:38 PM 10/10/05, Grant Richter wrote:
>
>> The human ear is evolutionarily adapted to the human voice, which  
>> is extremely unstable.
>> The possibility of "nimble" pitch sources with extreme stability  
>> are only recently available (perhaps 100 years).
>> At this point, they do not have any real significance in terms of  
>> the "History of Music".
>>
>> Buchla's famous comment (attributed) that his VCOs didn't have to  
>> be tuned any more often than a violin,
>> is perfectly reasonable in the context of musical instrument history.
>>
>> Absolute experts (such as Mr. Ian Fritz) have researched analog  
>> oscillator stability to the point where
>> it rivals DSPs. A very difficult and impressive engineering  
>> success. But only an engineering success.
>>
>> Ultra-stable oscillators, by themselves, have not produced a  
>> musical revolution, because even highly
>> unstable acoustic sources are "good enough for jazz".
>>
>> And yes, Mr. Loffink, I do know that precise oscillators allow  
>> micro-tuning and the good things that go with it.
>> So do Gamelan Metalophones and Sitars / Tamburas.
>