Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Workstation-style keyboards do (the ones that have a synthesizer and a built-in sequencer as well as other features). This is implemented using the MIDI tuning Standard which has been around for years. Such functionality is usually not available on simpler synthesizer, which allow adjustment of concert pitch but not much else. There just isn't much demand for this outside of professional composition circles, for the same reason that Barbershop Quartet music (which relies very heavily on just intonation for its ringing harmonies) is an extremely niche musical taste.

It's useful if you want to write non-western music, eg Arabic or Indonesian or Indian styles which have different scalar intervals from Equal Temperment, but only if you're very concerned with authenticity. The fact is that if you're composing for a Western-music audience you can get most of the 'feel' of other musical traditions by selecting a suitable scale and playing in equal temperment. If you're composing within the musical tradition of a non-western culture you're less likely to be using something conceptually oriented around a piano keyboard in the first place. In a lot of musical traditions (and indeed country and folk music in the west) the emphasis is not so much on tonality and composition as having a good repertoire of stock musical phrases that everyone is familiar with, and virtuosity consists in skillful improvisation employing those musical tropes.



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: