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Set theoretic solution for the tuning problem

Published: May 27, 2025 | arXiv ID: 2506.13969v1

By: Vsevolod Vladimirovich Deriushkin

Potential Business Impact:

Makes music sound better with new math.

Business Areas:
Musical Instruments Media and Entertainment, Music and Audio

In this paper I want to suggest a new solution to the problem of musical tuning. On one hand, I see it as a generalization of Just Intonation (JI) to inharmonic timbers, on another, as a unification of spectral interference and harmonicity contributions to consonance within a single framework. The main achievement of the work is the ability to mathematically quantify the phenomenon of musical consonance using set theory. That quantification is done by defining two measures of consonance: affinity and harmonicity. These measures naturally generate sets of intervals that can be used as dynamic tuning systems. The paper is aimed at a broad audience of people who may not be skilled in music and tuning theory or mathematics. Thus, I attempt to give as much details and explanations as I can, while keeping the number of pages as low as possible.

Page Count
65 pages

Category
Computer Science:
Sound