ABSTRACT
One of the most liberating aspects about using a computer to compose music is that non-traditional "frequency space" can be explored in different ways without having to address the limitations of physical instruments or human performers. This sort of experimentation may involve working with raw, untempered Hertz values, just harmonic ratios, microtonal inflections, or "alternate" tuning systems, which we define very broadly to mean any tuning system other than the standard l2-tone equal tempered scale. But working with an expanded frequency space using MIDI synthesizers will quickly expose MIDI's strong bias towards the popular music tradition and the Western tonal system in general. Nowhere is this bias more pronounced than in the implementation of key number frequency control, which quantizes an infinite number of frequencies into just 128 scale degrees that represent the Western keyboard instrument. As a result, composers working outside the popular, mainstream tradition (or even outside the popular keyboard tradition!) must find ways to overcome the tendency of MIDI to generate sounds based on the standard twelve note division of the equal-tempered chromatic scale.
