Default Values

[czardas]

I haven't tested this yet, but I was just wondering if Beep accepts floats as frequency values. It would seem that it doesn't, but while looking at the help file I couldn't help but wonder why the default frequency was 500 Hz. I suggest this value should be changed to the standard 440 Hz - used by most western orchestras as a reference note (A) for tuning - 500 Hz doesn't seem to fit with any standard I know of. As this isn't really a feature request I thought I would ask for opinions here.

It's not a big deal, but using 500 Hz is a bit like having a default time value of 50 seconds, rather than 60 seconds. It would be a very small change and bring further standardization to AutoIt.

Edited June 4, 2012 by czardas

[jvanegmond]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms679277(v=vs.85).aspx

DWORD = 32 bit unsigned integer.

[czardas]

Are we talking about the same function here? The link describes a function that returns zero on failure. No default frequency value is indicated. If the default frequency is 500 Hz, then it basically ignores international standards. The pitch 440 Hz is used for calibrating acoustic equipment, audio test (transmision) signals etc... Like I said it's no big deal, but why 500 Hz?

[jvanegmond]

(Afaik) AutoIt uses that function to play the sound. Since it accepts an unsigned integer, we have answered your question "Does it accept floats?". The answer is no.*

I don't know where exactly the 500 Hz beep originated from, but I think it's a legacy thing from old hardware.

* Tchnically the answer is yes, since the value is automatically converted. You can pass a float, it just doesn't use it. I understand that's not what you meant.

[czardas]

Thanks for the link. Perhaps the 500 Hz just sounded about right to the person who came up with it.

I figured that the float value would be converted and it's really a bit of shame that the calibration is so limited. I had planned to test a theory I have had for many years now, but Beep won't hack it in the lower (bass) register due to this insensitivity. Back to the drawing board I suppose (only it seems I'm out of options). I need to calculate the discrepancies to see how serious they are before jumping to conclusions.

These are two unrelated things.

Edited June 4, 2012 by czardas

[Valik]

You're a music person. Almost certainly the person who wrote Beep() is not. It's very likely the person just didn't know that 440 was a standard value that should be used.

[czardas]

Well at least I know it wasn't you Valik.

[Kip]

Thanks for the link. Perhaps the 500 Hz just sounded about right to the person who came up with it.

I figured that the float value would be converted and it's really a bit of shame that the calibration is so limited. I had planned to test a theory I have had for many years now, but Beep won't hack it in the lower (bass) register due to this insensitivity. Back to the drawing board I suppose (only it seems I'm out of options). I need to calculate the discrepancies to see how serious they are before jumping to conclusions.

These are two unrelated things.

You could create a program that creates a beep via the soundcard. Depending on your speakers, it probably gives you a better sound and a larger frequency range.

[czardas]

Yeah maybe I can figure something like that out in the future.I might as well let the cat out of the bag, because I'm tired of trying to figure it out. First of all a little story.

Several years ago I did a course with the Open University called Topics in the History of Mathematics. A deep knowledge of maths was not really essential because it was a combined study. I just about scraped a pass. Some of the early material on this course was concerned with simple ratios and theories relating musical intervals, often attributed to Pythagoras. Division of the octave into simple (pure) ratios gave rise to a theory of scales which is still used today. The simpler the ratio, the stronger the harmonic resonance (basic maths). Perhaps you have heard of 'Music of the Spheres'.

Unfortunately music developed beyond the scope of these basic (natural) intervals several hundered years ago and certain combinations of notes (key changes) were impossible using the old system. The modern system of tuning is called equal temperament but it does not have the rich acoustic properties of natural notes. I experimented and came up with a scale which borrowed one note from the modern system (the tritone), and this gave rise to a symetrical arrangement with 11 natural notes and one artificial note. It sounded very good on the two wooden monochords that I made to test the scale.

The question was how to modulate (change key) using this arrangement because not all semitones are equal. The solution was to imagine that the notes were able to drift between different pitch values to produce the natural notes associated with the new key. Early guitars had frets that could be moved to make these kind of adjustments, but it was never practical in performance and eventually equal temperament became the main (compromised) system. Now it is possible to have an instrument that shifts the value of a note by small amounts to make music sound much richer. That instrument is called the computer.

I dubbed my system 'Drifting Temperament' although I recently read something on wiki which sounded quite similar with differennt name - which I forget. Unfortunately there was no detail or mathematical basis to the article, but rather the suggestion that such things are done by feel (by the musician). Well that's nothing new. The following question was not addressed by the article, which I found to be a bit watery.

The question I want to answer is whether it is best to have one fixed pitch as an anchor, whether to allow all notes to drift around a hypothetical anchor, whether to allow the music to drift away from the original frequencies with no anchor, and whether or not the notes should drift to the new frequencies suddenly or gradually. Each alternative may have merit. I wonder now if I will ever answer this question.

Listening to music which uses natural notes is like seeing in colour for the first time. Even Isaac Newton thought it was important enough to devote time to the subject, although his solution was never taken up due to it being impractical. One thing that has never been heard is Beethoven's 5th in drifting temperament - I imagine it would sound awesome.

Edited June 4, 2012 by czardas

[ProgAndy]

Well, you could start generating PCM data and feed it to a stream created with the BASS library.

[czardas]

Indeed that is a good idea for production ProgAndy. Thanks for the suggestion, although I don't know exactly what it entails. I could create a drifting guitar tuning. Problem is getting the computer to tune my guitar LOL. (maybe not).

Actually most of these drifts would be small tweaks (in the right dirction) and the listener may be unaware of them during playback. Having said that once you are aware of their presence you would notice the difference.

Edited June 4, 2012 by czardas