[Sugar-devel] Outreachy - Going Beyond Equal Temperament in Music Blocks

[Sachithra Dangalla]

>
> *I like the general direction you are going. *



Thank you and I'm happy to hear that.



> *I wonder if it cannot be a bit more simple in that you could define the
> number of steps in a key/mode by simply the number of define frequency
> blocks in the clamp? and maybe you don't need to modify the pitch block to
> return an argument? It could just be a hertz block contained in the define
> frequency clamp. (Maybe the block should be define step?) I am assuming
> that the widget would output a stack of code like this? And to activate it,
> it would simply be run before everything else? *



I'm sorry I'm having a bit of a trouble understanding the above. Can you
please explain a bit simply? Are you suggesting to reuse the existing
pitch-block inside the define-frequency clamp?  As discussed in the GitHub
issue, if the define-frequency is a clamp, users might add multiple blocks
in it which is why I represented it as an arg-block as you suggested.


*There is a mechanism for saving stacks to be used between projects, so I
> could imaging making a temperament you like and reusing it again and again.*


That's a very good idea so the users can keep reusing their temperament
definitions, thanks for the suggestion. Can you name just one instance that
mechanism is used in MB?

Regards,

*Sachithra Dangalla,*
Undergraduate B.Sc.Eng.(Hons.)
Department of Computer Science & Engineering,
University of Moratuwa,
Sri Lanka.

<https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SachithraDangalla93>
<https://lk.linkedin.com/in/sachithradangalla>
<https://comexile.blogspot.com>

On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 5:24 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 4:58 AM, Sachithra Dangalla <
> sachithradangalla at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> I came up with the following simple activity diagram(attachment 1) to
>> capture what happens when the user defines a temperament. By incorporating
>> the comments and Devin's mockups in the GitHub issue[1] I came up with a
>> mockup design for the widget (attachment 2). The widget will be initialized
>> with the default values as follows:
>>
>>    - starting pitch: 256
>>    - octave: 4
>>    - 12 frequency blocks for each note with default ratio 1/1
>>
>>
>> I would like to hear your comments about them.
>>
>> After defining the frequencies, the user has to trigger a "save the
>> configuration" is that so? How will the user save it?
>>
>
> I like the general direction you are going. I wonder if it cannot be a bit
> more simple in that you could define the number of steps in a key/mode by
> simply the number of define frequency blocks in the clamp? and maybe you
> don't need to modify the pitch block to return an argument? It could just
> be a hertz block contained in the define frequency clamp. (Maybe the block
> should be define step?) I am assuming that the widget would output a stack
> of code like this? And to activate it, it would simply be run before
> everything else? There is a mechanism for saving stacks to be used between
> projects, so I could imaging making a temperament you like and reusing it
> again and again.
>
>>
>> An additional question: I used an image editing tool(PS) to get the
>> mockups, is there a better way to design mockups?
>>
>
> I need to add an export button for the block artwork. I typically just use
> inkscape.
>
>>
>> [1] - https://github.com/walterbender/musicblocks/issues/485
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> *Sachithra Dangalla,*
>> Undergraduate B.Sc.Eng.(Hons.)
>> Department of Computer Science & Engineering,
>> University of Moratuwa,
>> Sri Lanka.
>>
>> <https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SachithraDangalla93>
>> <https://lk.linkedin.com/in/sachithradangalla>
>> <https://comexile.blogspot.com>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 7:47 PM, Devin Ulibarri <devin at ulibarri.website>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, 2017-03-22 at 13:25 +0530, Sachithra Dangalla wrote:
>>> > Mode is a new term to me and I'm still reading about it ([1] and [2]).
>>> > I'm finding it hard to understand the relationship between temperament
>>> > and mode or their implementations, any advice on it would be great. Is
>>> > mode already presented in music blocks?
>>> >
>>> There is a "mode" widget.
>>>
>>> As for temperament and mode, these are the important principles...
>>>
>>> * You have collection of pitches that most often repeats at the octave.
>>>
>>> e.g.
>>>
>>> CDEFGAB(CDEFG...)
>>>
>>> [N.B. this number of pitches can be any number, but some collections are
>>> more common than others.]
>>>
>>> * A mode is the name/quality that collection of pitches has/imbues when
>>> starting (or "centering around") from a particular pitch in that
>>> collection.
>>>
>>> Start from C or D or E or F etc. changes the sound of the music.
>>>
>>> * Temperament is the precise tuning of those notes, and thus the
>>> relationship of the tuning of those notes with each other.
>>>
>>> For example, if the tuning in Hz of E is changed, the relationship
>>> between C and E changes too... thus affecting the sound.
>>>
>>> So, with different temperaments, the same modes can sound very
>>> different.
>>>
>>> Devin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> <http://www.sugarlabs.org>
>
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