Temperaments vs MeanTones

Temperaments: Tune your music and your ears. Temperaments is an application for learning about musical tunings and temperaments used throughout history. Want to play Bach in a tuning he actually used? Would you like to try early music as it was heard at the time? How about composing new music with an unconventional tuning? Temperaments tunes your music and your ears. Temperaments uses MIDI to retune your music on the fly. You can play any standard MIDI file, apply a temperament, and hear the result in real time. You can connect an external keyboard, let Temperaments retune your performance, and send it to any synthesizer you choose. You can even record your music to standard MIDI files and export them to play on any sequencer. Your recordings can be sent to anyone via email. They can be dropped onto Dropbox, and you can tell the world about them on Facebook, all from within Temperaments. Temperaments includes twenty six temperaments in addition to Equal Temperament, with both meantone and unequal-interval types. You can switch back to Equal Temperament instantly just by pressing a button for instant comparison - even while notes are sounding. You can even change to an entirely different temperament instantly, any time, even in the middle of a performance. Temperaments includes a large, expandable display showing the differences between Equal Temperament and a chosen temperament. And, of course, you can select any note to be the root key of any temperament, so that your temperament matches the key of any file or performance. Use Temperaments to learn about nonstandard tunings. Use Temperaments to compose new music in unusual ways. Or experiment with applying a temperament to your MIDI files. Any way you want to use it, Temperaments tunes your music and your ears.

Why is that wolf lurking in the clavichord? Because it skulks along with the meantone tuning system, used by most keyboards of the 16th and 17th centuries. What is quarter-comma meantone temperament and how does it work? Which problem does it solve, and which problem does it create? MeanTones answers your questions with some math, some music, and lots of fun. Choose a note and an interval to play on the Piano, or switch to the Cheesy Organ if you’re brave. Either way, you’ll hear the interval in meantone, and you’ll see a complete chart of the numbers comparing it to the same interval in equal temperament. The Background Information explains the meantone tuning system in detail, and the Timeline puts it all in perspective. Press “Play Game” to put your knowledge to the test. You see and hear an interval, and quick — is it a wolf? If you’re right, you add a new layer of bricks to your house. But if you’re wrong, the wolf will huff and puff and blow your house down!