For her album Beauty in the Beast, Wendy Carlos developed several
non-octave scales whose step sizes are calculated to optimize approximations
of three intervals: the 3:2 fifth, the 5:4 major third, and the 6:5 minor third.
The alpha, beta, gamma, and delta scales differ in terms of how strongly they
privilege each of those just intervals. The basic step size for each scale is
created by calling this function with the appropriate name argument (e.g. "alpha").
You can also choose your own weights for the three approximated just intervals, in
which case the name argument is overridden.
Arguments
- name
Which of Carlos's four scales to create:
"alpha","beta","gamma", or"delta". Defaults to"alpha"- weights
Numeric vector of length 3 assigning the number of steps that correspond to 3:2, 5:4, and 6:5, respectively. Overrides
nameif specified.- edo
Number of unit steps in an octave. Defaults to
12.
Examples
alpha_scale <- (0:31) * carlos_step()
practically_12tet <- (0:24) * carlos_step(weights=c(7, 4, 3))