Decolonizing Electronic Music Starts with Its Software | Hacker News Reader

Decolonizing Electronic Music Starts with Its Software

pitchfork.com

7 pointswebmaven11 comments

> If a musician opens a new composition and they are given a 4/4 beat and equal tempered tuning by default, it is implied that other musical systems do not exist, or at least that they are of less value.

This level of thought is getting so tedious.

So true. It’s just a default. No font is less value than Times New Roman just because it’s there when you start a new Word doc. Also not too worried about the hegemony of the piano-style keyboard.

Like physical instruments, electronic ones can be made to suit your needs. Same for composers and automation.

What popular intruments can be made to play microtunal / non-Equal tempermant without major modifications? Sitar, and fretless stringed instruments come to mind, but I wouldnt say "like physical instruments" because the culture of building musical tools is so heavily influenced by western musicians.

I don’t play wind, but I think trombone fits in.

Popular is at odds with “doing things the majority of people don’t do” of course. Like asking about popular non-QWERTY Apple keyboards. Unpopular doesn’t mean “you suck for wanting it”, just “hey not our thing, do it if you want to.” You need compositions and maybe an audience. 4/4 and equal temperament just benefit from a network effect.

There is a significant culture of non-Western instruments and non-Western musicians. Probably a good starting point.

Do you feel that this isn't true? I was raised by musicians, and am an (amateur) musician. It rings true to my feelings and experiences. It not just our software but inside our hears and ears. We want to play and replicate what we hear and know and western musicians hear mostly western music, based on (but not exclusively on) 4/4, equal temperament.

You got downvoted but I sympathize. Everyone likes what they like, and are heavily influenced by what they hear (and grew up hearing, particularly). It’s not wrong, just how we generally are.

Western music tolerates more syncopation and chromatic sound than it did 200 years ago, that’s something. If all you listen to is pop, you’re missing a LOT.

Learning that something that you cannot see still exists usually occurs by 6 months of age, so I'm challenging the idea that this is a problem electronic music artists face.

You like 4/4 western music and want to play it, but you are clearly aware of alternatives. As soon as you know what a time signature is, you know that there are many possibilities. Maybe if someone knows nothing of music theory and has never heard anything that wasn't 4/4 they would be unaware this was a variable parameter, but that's exactly the kind of user who needs a simple, user-friendly default.

Yeah it's such an irrational accusation. If that were true, why would music programs put the option to change it at the top of the screen? This agenda-driven criticism makes me feel that someone was reading about colonialism and started getting angry at everything in their life.

Ignoring the social commentary, I’d love to find an easy platform to set up alternate tunings from instrument to automation. CMusic and CSound (from when I was most immersed) give total control for example. What I hear in my head is usually bent a bit, like 12-tone but not equal temperament, and sometimes many more tones. Building a good physical instrument is hard but at least you can shape each note however you want (cut the tube just so, put a fret there or don’t, etc.). For the instrument side, it could just be banks of touch- and velocity-sensitive buttons that can be arranged and assigned, not just in piano layout.

There is a lot of western music that uses different time signatures. Entire genres like math rock, fusion, and progressive rock use them all the time. Most music programs I know support changing time signature and I've seen tuning settings on many virtual instruments. I think the new protocol called MPE has better support of microtonal tunings. The defaults just depend on what software you use and what's most common with the people that use it. I guess people will get angry about anything these days.

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