Originally Posted by pouffywall

I would definitely be the first to buy that book ^

Are you personally able to distinguish particular microtones? The western chromatic scale is pretty ingrained into me, and it's hard for me to pick out microtones averse to just hearing them as sharp/flat tones. :c

Although I'm triggered when you say the western scale is imperfect, that hurts man

Originally Posted by Lazors

Thanks dude I'll sign it for ya
Difficult question. If we're talking 19-tone scales then I can pretty easily hear the difference between a small second in 12-edo and one in 19-edo. Not sure if I could distinguish a 19-edo small second from a 24-edo small second though.
Also you're not alone in that. Most people describe microtonal music as "western music played out of tune".

It's literally a compromise between pure intervals and a functional scale
Bach's original temperament was probably closer to just intonation than 12-edo.

This doesn't mean the modern scale is bad, or that microtonal scales are better, or that there exists a thing like a perfect scale, but it's still imperfect and could probably made more interesting. It's a shame people haven't experimented heavily with temperament since Bach's time and that anything that deviates from the western scale is frowned upon

I wouldn't have used the word "triggered" if I wasn't just a little bit kidding :c Don't hurt me pls


In all fairness though, in practice the average joe wouldn't be able to pick out a true perfect fifth from the 'perfect fifth' in the western scale due to imperfections in how we discern frequency anyway, so calling the scale imperfect may be a bit harsh, at least in the context of exploring other scales.

It is a shame that more experimentation hasn't been done though. This is a sad comparison, but its the same way with body modding in tb lmao. A lot of people like consistency with competitive mods and I guess any variance is seen as a little threatening. Whaddya do