Hey all, Subhraag, the inventor of the Infinitone, here. A friend of mine just saw this and told me about the thread. I'm happy to answer any questions..... The advantage of the Infinitone is that it can play ANY microtonal scale instantly (with little to no practice). The scale in this composition, posted earlier, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56fLizLEn6Y, is 128 harmonics within an octave. I basically "sight read" it for this recording (though the motors were triggered by MIDI). Try THAT on any other instrument :) We are about to release a software instrument called InfinitoneDMT... which gives instant, inspiring, dynamic access to a multiverse of vibrant new tonal possibilities using notes not available on a standard keyboard (https://infinitone.com). It will be coming out soon, hopefully this summer!
Hrrm. Looking at the electronics apparently it's an array of servos mounted to a tapered rectangular prism base geometry sheet metal chassis held together through welding. Listening to the recording they seem to 'click' audibly when closing off holes. I wonder if it would be feasible to introduce a non-clicky approach and/or a non-servo approach, for example by integrating on-PCB linear actuation and some form of non-metallic seal contact. Non-servo would also have the benefit of greatly reducing instrument weight. On-PCB would also have the benefit of greatly reducing cost, assuming a working mechanism can be found with adequate torque. Happy to offer what assistance I can if there's a contact point.
Subhraag, the inventor of the Infinitone here! A friend of mine just told me about this thread. Please write to me at subhraag (at) infinitone.com. I made this instrument the way I did because it was within my skill set (and budget) to do so. I am absolutely open to collaboration to improve it.
>But you may be surprised to learn that the twelve musical tones that shape our very understanding of Western music today is extremely narrow.
Grammar aside, the twelve musical tones that comprise Western music are, well, the good ones. It's not like there are thousands of notes out there and we randomly picked 12 and didn't think about the rest. We picked the 12 best ones.
I find it a bit reductive to say equal temperament has 'the good [tones]'. I think 'the least bad tones' would probably be more accurate, in the sense that no matter what you are playing (i.e. which note(s)/scale(s) the piece is centered on), it'll sound fairly OK, even though some intervals are not what they should be.
It sounds pleasant to the ear because that's what most people hear all day. Other cultures have developed a slightly different relationship with harmony, leading to them considering other tones 'good'.
For a cheeky example of what I mean with 'the least bad tones', feel free to check this short demo by Jacob Collier[1], about just how out of tune equal temperament is.
Interesting, see also the glissotar (https://glissonic.com/) for a purely analog variation. That one is more analogous to a fretless guitar (if the linked sax is more analogous to a guitar with adjustable frets).
I was running to the comments to post this too. The Ininitone is an impressive mechanical achievement, but I think the glissotar has much more potential to catch on.
Yep. There are many different ways to tune a piano, none of them perfect. A tuning that is just right for one key will leave real howlers in others. (Literally "howlers"; it's called a "wolf tone")
You have a good ear, you are hearing the small errors inherent in "twelve-tone equal temperament"[1] which is a compromise between numerical ideals and practical instrument-making.
Equal temperament is used to allow playing in arbitrary keys without retuning…for example D and E flat are equally in (and out of tune) with equal temperament. With Pythagorean or Just tuning, instruments are tuned to a specific key (or set of related keys).
Which is to say historically, equal temperament is mostly a result of compositional and performance concerns rather than manufacturing limitations.
Readit News
Grammar aside, the twelve musical tones that comprise Western music are, well, the good ones. It's not like there are thousands of notes out there and we randomly picked 12 and didn't think about the rest. We picked the 12 best ones.
It sounds pleasant to the ear because that's what most people hear all day. Other cultures have developed a slightly different relationship with harmony, leading to them considering other tones 'good'.
For a cheeky example of what I mean with 'the least bad tones', feel free to check this short demo by Jacob Collier[1], about just how out of tune equal temperament is.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGDWXe2u9kw
The fact that our 12 tones, which are mostly made of simple ratios of frequencies, sound good is not a coincidence.
It seems they reached out to Bart Hopkin when they were trying to patent it[1].
[0] https://barthopkin.com/instrumentarium/moe/
[1] https://barthopkin.com/more-moe/
Is it just me, or is this strict division into semitones making e.g. piano music sound like it's slightly off-key at times?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music)
Actual pianos are usually tuned in a way that sounds pretty good most of the time, without ever sounding perfect.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8682782
Original article is offline, it seems :-(
EDIT: archive.org to the rescue!
https://web.archive.org/web/20240123154411/https://blogs.sci...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_equal_temperament
Which is to say historically, equal temperament is mostly a result of compositional and performance concerns rather than manufacturing limitations.