2019/06/15 by Luciano da Fontoura Costa, Costa, Luciano da Fontoura
Computer Science · #Audio and Speech Processing (eess.AS) #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #Music Technology and Sound Studies #Music and Audio Processing #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #Sound (cs.SD) #Speech and Audio Processing #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1906.06559
openalex publication_date 2019/06/15 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
After briefly revising the concepts of consonance/dissonance, a respective mathematic-computational model is described, based on Helmholtz's consonance theory and also considering the partials intensity. It is then applied to characterize five scale temperaments, as well as some minor and major triads and electronic amplification. In spite of the simplicity of the described model, a surprising agreement is often observed between the obtained consonances/dissonances and the typically observed properties of scales and chords. The representation of temperaments as graphs where links correspond to consonance (or dissonance) is presented and used to compare distinct temperaments, allowing the identification of two main groups of scales. The interesting issue of nonlinearities in electronic music amplification is also addressed while considering quadratic distortions, and it is shown that such nonlinearities can have drastic effect in changing the original patterns of consonance and dissonance.