Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubato
I'm not quite sure I get the analogy, yes someones taste for dissonance can vary but the level of dissonance will still get higher the further you go from the fundamental. If it's half the frequency it occurs more times so it gives more support. 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 +1/8 as apposed to 1/7 + 1/14 +1/14 ect.
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Yes, but we're speaking of sample based recording, electronically altered sounds, and electronically created sounds. A siren will always be dissonant, no matter what pitch you tune it to. In the same sense, maybe the sound of waves sounds dissonant at different pitches than say... a piano.
You have to remember this concept of pitch-based dissonance was ENTIRELY developed in acoustic realms. Even then adjustments were made. Some instrumentalists in orchestral settings are actually playing at different frequencies than others(I believe that trumpets actually play an octave lower, or higher than what it says on the sheet paper. I could be misinformed though). Furthermore, notes are transposed with methods developed on how different instruments play each other.
You can't just take ideas that apply to a flat grand piano, and bring them into electronics. Pitch frequencies mean much less when there's as many variable attributes on the textures themselves that must be taken into consideration.
Take a multi-band equalizer for instance. I can take a violin, and take it's full pitch, and turn the lowest pitches up, the highest pitches down, and the middle pitches random. No matter what I'd play, it'd be dissonant no matter what I play, because large chunks of the frequency band will be altered.
However, that dissonance can sound amazing. So amazing that, in fact, it can obsolete the concept of labeling the sound in it's altered state as 'dissonant' or 'not dissonant'.