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Scala comes with a very large collection of tunings. Many of these are mysterious to me. Specifically, I'm seeking information about these two:

pyramid_down.scl               12  Upside-Down Wedding Cake (divorce cake) 
t-side2.scl                    12  Tau-on-Side opposite

I'll take anything I can get at this point -- historical information about who made them and why, technical / mathematical information about how they're constructed, examples of their use in music etc.

Incidentally, I have no reason to believe these are related, they just stood out to me when I was exploring the collection. I'm currently using them both in a piece of music so I'd like to be able to say something about them when asked (or even when nobody asks).

Aaron
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helveticat
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    You probably know that doing SHOW SCALE with different SET ATTRIBUTES values gives you some clues to the mathematics involved. But although I've used a number of the tunings, only occasionally could I find out who had created them or how or why. The Tunings mailing-list closed, then the Yahoo Group, and now I think there is only Facebook, which has four or more groups, each specializing in some aspect of microtonal music. How keen are you to pursue it? I've got a few links and also some names of people who might be able to help. – Old Brixtonian May 28 '20 at 01:55
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    As for examples of their use, I've used Graham Breed's scale of 12 notes to a schismatic fourth and a 19-note scale from Thorvald Kornerup's Golden meantone. I've got some big 'band' and 'orchestral' pieces using 06-41 Hexatonic scale in 41-tet and 07-37 Miller's Porcupine-7 but not the scales you are interested in. Neil Haverstick has pieces of his on his site, mostly using 19 and 34-note E.T., played on specially-fretted guitars. I would guess that a tuning like a wedding cake would have narrow intervals at the top and wide at the base, so divorce cakes would be the opposite. Tau? No idea! – Old Brixtonian May 28 '20 at 03:50
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    Thanks for the insight -- at least I'm not missing something obvious... I'll take any leads you have (regarding these tunings or sources of information in general). I'm more ear-led these days so I'm happy to have found sounds I enjoy but I'd like to at least be able to give credit where it's due. – helveticat May 28 '20 at 08:32
  • If you're still interested, I had a couple of emails with some contact details. I'll post them here in a new answer. – Old Brixtonian Oct 21 '20 at 17:19

2 Answers2

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Tunings and creation dates from ScalaVista Online Scale Archive

Pyramid / Wedding Cake

Created: February 19, 1996

9/8, 75/64, 5/4, 4/3, 45/32, 3/2, 25/16, 5/3, 27/16, 16/9, 15/8, 2/1

Pyramid down / Upside-down Wedding Cake / Divorce Cake

Created: February 19, 1996

16/15, 9/8, 6/5, 32/25, 4/3, 3/2, 8/5, 27/16, 16/9, 9/5, 48/25, 2/1

Tau-on-side

Created: February 2, 2010

25/24, 16/15, 9/8, 5/4, 4/3, 45/32, 3/2, 25/16, 8/5, 5/3, 15/8, 2/1

Tau-on-side opposite

Created: March 24, 2003

9/8, 75/64, 6/5, 5/4, 4/3, 45/32, 3/2, 5/3, 225/128, 9/5, 15/8, 2/1
Aaron
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Yahoo Groups! is shutting down permanently on December 15, 2020, meaning that even email functionality will be broken.

At this point, virtually all of the online microtonal/xenharmonic presence is at Facebook's "Xenharmonic Alliance," "Xenharmonic Alliance - Mathematical Theory", and "Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory" groups. You are all encouraged to join those!

The messages from this group have all been archived. The archive is at: https://yahootuninggroupsultimatebackup.github.io/

You can also always get the Xenharmonic Wiki at: https://en.xen.wiki/w/Main_Page

Thanks and I'll see you all there!

There's also a group on MeWe (Dr. Oz posts there, but he's not on Facebook). https://mewe.com/group/5c9c1bc3d71e3023f90fe123

....and an email list run by Aaron Krister Johnson at [email protected]. You should be able to sign up here: http://lists.untwelve.org/listinfo.cgi/tuning-discuss-untwelve.org

There's also a (quiet) Slack, if you're interested in more real-time interactions. Let me know if you're interested.

Jake Freivald

Old Brixtonian
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  • This seems like a good Q/A in its own right. ...and possible more likely to be found. – Aaron Oct 21 '20 at 18:19
  • @Aaron Did you see my *message* above? My answer just consists of a couple of emails from various members of the late-lamented Tunings Group, who sent an email round saying where to find what's left of it. Do you mean I should ask eg 'Where to find tunings info?' then answer it with the info in their emails? I guess I could, if that's what you meant. Btw, the archived messages are useful, and *searchable*. Well done finding Wedding Cake etc. Remiss of me not to have checked the ScalaVista Online Scale Archive back in May when the OP asked the question. Do you dip a toe in other tunings? – Old Brixtonian Oct 22 '20 at 00:08
  • Yes, exactly. I was suggesting you post a question like "Where to find tunings info?" I'm often wrong about these things, but my sense is it might prove useful to a fair number of people. As far as alternative tunings -- not as a performer (or, not on purpose as a performer), but academically it's an area of curiosity if not a great deal of knowledge. – Aaron Oct 22 '20 at 00:12
  • @Aaron Ok I'll do that. Thanks. My math(s) isn't good enough to follow some of the discussions the experts have, but there are certainly some beautiful tunings. – Old Brixtonian Oct 22 '20 at 00:37
  • Thanks very much for these links, and to Aaron for the info from the Archive; I appreciate both. I'm not on any of the platforms you mention but maybe that should change. Looks like Old Brixtonian's question will be a good lightning rod for collecting links: https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/106882/where-to-find-information-about-tunings. – helveticat Oct 22 '20 at 21:05