Of course, in the mix with other instruments.
Don t worry!
1 Like
not sure if this demonstrates what you were talking about, but i gave it a shot last night with the MicroMonsta 2.
here’s two supersaws (i think) with default everything and levels on the 2nd oscillator at about half
here are 3 oscillators (saw, saw, square, i think) with the 2nd and 3rd levels about half and some mod matrix stuff. i didn’t do much with adsr.
the patches themselves aren’t anything special, but they sound okay to my ears.
3 Likes
Just intonation shouldn’t clash with equal tuning provided that the instrument that is tuned for just intonation is in the same key as other instruments. This is problematic for acoustic instruments, since you’d have to manually tune a piano or violin or harpsichord each time you wanted to change key–if you have your guitar tuned for just intonation in C and try to switch to G minor it will sound off–but that may be a trivial adjustment on a synth. I haven’t experimented with this yet myself.
As others here have pointed out, equal temperament is a trade-off between accuracy and flexibility that gets around this problem. Interestingly, Wendy Carlos worked extensively with just intonation in some of her later compositions and recordings. Here’s the tuning table she used for those who are interested (@Fin25, I know you’ll want to see this 
).
4 Likes
Sorry, fell asleep before the last paragraph.
6 Likes
I can’t see that this is a tuning thing? As others have pointed out selecting and playing two musically unrelated notes at the same time will give a dissonant sound. In the same way that playing two related notes won’t. This is true of any instrument. If the instrument is out of tune with itself (so on a Poly if both oscillators are out against each other) you’ll get beating. As @craig said, it’s a technique used to tune guitars… open string against a harmonic on the next string, tune for zero beat. If you’ve ever set up a synth (that is tuning and scaling oscillators) on an instrument with two oscillators you do a similar thing to get zero beat across the span of the keyboard.
Consider filtering and envelope settings as you’ll hear it most at full sustain with the filter wide open.
It’s just physics and the relationship between frequencies.
Without trying to sound facetious if playing a D sharp over a D sounds bad, pick some other notes.
1 Like
I should have probably added that if you misspent your youth in loud clubs you almost certainly aren’t going to hear the difference in these tunings, so carry on making bangers on your 303…
3 Likes
I guess that’s why even though I make electronic music I almost exclusively listen to jazz
4 Likes
I used to listen to cheesy metal like All That Remains and Disturbed back in high school.
I always prefer acoustic instruments regardless.
1 Like
Quite the confession.
I blame Guitar Hero on PS2
2 Likes
Right. I do listen to a lot of electronic but the stuff I seem to always go back to has an element of imperfection somewhere, from played (Radiohead, New Order), analog synths (Daft Punk, Kraftwerk), very deliberately mangled (Autechre) or very deliberately drunk (boom-bap).
Trap and techno for example that stays so close to a grid usually bores me after only a few loops.
1 Like
Are you me? I soooo agree with everything you just said. Trap can do one already. I do like some techno tho, I just have to be in the mood for it - the repetition can be quite meditative when doing other things, for example.
The key is imperfection tho as you said! I deliberately seek out synth sounds that constantly change in some way, even sounding wildly out of tune at times. It just sounds more organic.
2 Likes
The repeating beats are fine by me as long as the sound varies. Totally agree that its amazing for house work or programming or anything else where you just need that constant heart rate boost without cerebral interference.
1 Like
“housework or programming” amazing!
2 Likes
Most programming is digital housework.
6 Likes
I think you’ve not quite understood the difference between equal temperament (eg piano/keyboard, guitar) and just intonation. Just intonation is based on frequency ratios, so intervals are more harmonious. Equal temperament splits the octave into twelve equal steps, so that it sounds equally in tune (i.e., acceptably out of tune) in all keys. An instrument tuned to just intonation for one key will often sound horribly out of tune in another key.
A major third interval in just intonation gives considerably less “beating” than the same interval in equal temperament. Watch the video posted up thread for a demonstration of this:
3 Likes
No, the point I was making was that the OP shouldn’t need to worry about other tunings like Just temperament to get a decent chord out of a polysynth.
I agree with that, but I think it’s more a synthesis thing than a note selection thing. The example chords OP posted didn’t seem dissonant to me.