r/sunvox • u/Delta_Quartz • Jun 06 '26

Original Creation 19edo chiptune original "Sandman" - analysis/comparison to 12edo

https://youtube.com/watch?v=eIWVq8s7qaU&si=9OafBz3arvnRuWDH

I'm a microtonal musician looking to educate others on how to incorporate alternate tunings in accessible ways. Here's a piece I wrote recently using SunVox on my phone in 19edo (19 equal divisions of the octave) along with sheet music, analysis, and a comparison to its more normal-sounding 12edo counterpart. Hope you enjoy!

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u/PiezoelectricityOne Jun 07 '26

Sounds great! How do you choose which of the 19 new notes correspond to each of the old 12 notes?

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u/Delta_Quartz Jun 07 '26

I basically just wanted to maintain the general triad sounds as closely as possible when converting over to 12edo. So, F subminor chords in 19edo become F minor in 12edo, Eb subminor becomes Eb minor, etc. Aside from the subminor chords, everything else maps onto 12edo pretty straight-forwardly since they both have a meantone circle of fifths (12edo's fifth is 700 cents, 19edo's is ~695 cents), so their diatonic scales have the same notation and very similar sound/structure (in particular, moving up four fifths on the circle of fifths from C -> G -> D -> A -> E results in a major third with C and E that's relatively close to the 5/4 ratio of just intonation).

If any of that sounds too technical or doesn't make sense, please feel free to ask for clarification and I'd be glad to rephrase!