Apple Logic Express 7 - Manual (Page 471)

Chapter 20 Song Settings and Preferences 471
Every temperament has its own “character”, and a given piece of music may sound fine
in one key, but awful in another. Transposing a piece to a new key can completely
change its character.
Careful attention must be paid to the selection of temperaments for authentic
performances of historic keyboard music. The wrong choice could result in an
unsatisfactory and historically inaccurate musical experience.
About Equal Temperament
Equal temperament takes the tuning ‘error’ (the comma), and spreads it equally
between each step of a chromatic scale. The result is actually a scale of equally mis-
tuned intervals, with no interval grossly out of tune, but none in perfect tune. Equal
temperament has become the de-facto standard for two main reasons:
• Convenience—Retuning an instrument to a specific temperament that is better
suited to a particular piece of music is a hassle.
Many instruments are not capable of being alternately tuned (fretted string
instruments, for example).
• Portability—All Western musical pieces can be performed (adequately) on an
instrument tuned to equal temperament. Obviously, some of the nuances may be
missing for pieces that were originally performed in another temperament. On the
flipside, pieces that depend on equal temperament may sound terrible by the
placement of various mis-tuned intervals.
Software Instrument Pitch
Tune
This parameter determines the global tuning of all software instruments. The default is
concert pitch A=440 Hz. To adjust, simply grab the slider and move it to the left or
right. Detuning is in cent (1/100th of a semitone) steps.
Scale
Activation of alternate tuning scales is achieved by clicking the appropriate radio
button in the File > Song Settings > Tuning pane. The selected tuning scale will be saved
when the song is saved, and reloaded the next time the song is opened.
Equal Tempered
This mode disables any tuning, and uses an equal tempered scale—just like earlier
Logic versions.
Fixed Tuning
This option activates a number of fixed tuning Scales and Keys. The Type pull-down
menu provides you with the most important historic tuning scales, amongst others.
The Root Key pull-down menu allows you to select a global key (C–B) for the chosen
scale as an easy way to reference the chosen historic scale to any root note.