I received an e-mail from someone asking about using a Pythagorean tuning in SCAMP, so I thought I’d answer it here and let you all see!
If you want to play back pitches in a 12-step Pythagorean tuning you can use the Scale object from scamp_extensions to do the work for you. Here’s how that might work:
# defining the scale; could put this in a separate file and import the pg object
from scamp_extensions.pitch import ScaleType, Scale
# specify the tuning (you can also load scales from a scala file with `ScaleType.load_from_scala`
pythagorean_scale_type = ScaleType("2187/2048", "9/8", "32/27", "81/64", "4/3", "729/512", "3/2", "6561/4096", "27/16", "16/9", "243/128", "2/1")
pg = Scale(pythagorean_scale_type, 0)
# main script
from scamp import *
s = Session()
clarinet = s.new_part("clarinet")
# play individual notes
for pitch in range(60, 73):
clarinet.play_note(pg[pitch], 0.7, 0.5)
# play sequence of perfect 5ths
for pitch in range(60, 73):
clarinet.play_chord(pg[pitch, pitch + 7], 0.7, 0.5)
By having the scale start on MIDI pitch 0, you can just index in with the standard MIDI pitch, and it will give you the Pythagorean-tuned version. Also, as demonstrated with the play_chord call above, you can can index into a scale with multiple values and get a list of Pythagorean-tuned pitches in return.
If you want to center the pythagorean tuning on a different pitch, you can do, e.g.:
pythagorean_scale_type.rotate(5)
Hope that’s helpful to you all!
Marc
P.S. If this is useful to you, maybe join my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/marcevanstein)?