Good point! I’m a big fan of tuning systems. The MTS-ESP protocol is a neat way to sync them and it does help in terms of handling diverse scales. Especially if we map notes to keys (either through .kbm files along .scl ones or with alternative formats, like .tun and such).
I don’t think I do, no! I’ll gladly take anything you send me!
I’ve been using things like Tonality, Harmonious, All the Scales, Scale Omnibus, Scale Compendium, and Tessitura Pro. Yet I don’t have a spreadsheet!
Something which is probably obvious to a lot of people is that it’s pretty easy to use a binary system to notate every possible scale in the “12TET ecosystem”: each bit represents a “pitch class” (0 is C, 1 is C♯, 2 is D, etc.), flip on the bit if the PC is part of the scale. You then have a 12-bit number (101011010101 for C Major) that you can convert back to decimal (2773) or even hex (AD5). That’s how All the Scales works, using some specifications. I sometimes feel that it should be in reverse and maybe drop one bit, as there’s always a root note. So, 10101011010 which is 1370 or x55A. (Kinda similar to “little-endian” vs. “big-endian”.)
At any rate, I feel like something could be done in Scaler if it embedded every possible scale (in 12TET) and could use them when we type them in (either by scale detection or by that decimal number).
For instance, with the Prometheus scale, I could only find Lydian Dominant (what Levin calls “Lydian ♭7”). The difference is that the Prometheus scale doesn’t use the fifth, and that makes a significant difference when you try to find which chords to use.
I ended up experimenting a bit until I was able to create this.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/902539484994478
(Riffer does have Prometheus so I generated a line with that. For chords, I created a progression of four chords that I tweaked for maximum voice-leading and with a large “open voicing” gap between the bass and the middle voices. I then made that progression “polymetric” by shortening the lines for each of the middle voices.)
Well, @panda is likely talking about scales in 12TET, which remains a dominant approach. Works well for databases and it’s what Scaler uses.
All the Scales only lists 228 unique scales in 1490 modes. Part of the reason is that it eliminates “Pitch Class Sets” with gaps wider than a major third. AFAICT, this decision is probably a measure to avoid (most) chords. In Set Theory, the difference isn’t that useful. In fact, the "Prometheus scale” uses the same notes as the “Mystic Chord”.
(Speaking of PC Sets, there’s an online calculator I use on occasion.)
So, yeah, there can be a lot more scales to take into account if you do the combinatorics for every tuning system. For instance, I like 31EDO and an exhaustive list of all its modes would probably be orders of magnitude more than the number of unique scales in 12TET.
Also, it’s useful to keep in mind that many scales use the exact same notes under different names (as mentioned previously). Something I’ve noticed with Scala files is that they lack a robust classification system and it’s quite possible to have two files describe the exact same collection of intervals. And since it doesn’t have a notion of reference pitch, I often have to tweak one to get the results I want.
Cool! Wish it were crossplatform.
more than enough for a day or two of experimentation!
