07 WAC 2022 Day 1 Exploring Microtonal Harmony with Web Audio and Web Midi

David Paulick
One aspect of musical practise that can be greatly facilitated by Web Audio and Web MIDI technologies is microtonality - tunings and temperaments that use more than twelve tones to the octave. The possibility of creating new interfaces, instruments, and tutorial materials is simplified by the combined visual and audio capabilities of JavaScript. Web Audio applications can be made inexpensively available and immediately explorable by web users.
With that in mind, I have used Web MIDI and Web Audio to create a simple instrument that enables users to experience, explore, and work with microtonality - specifically with the system of Just Intonation. The application is a playable Tonality Diamond and can be used effectively in combination with readily available MIDI controller hardware. It is available at tonalitydiamond.com. In this talk I will present the basic concepts behind the project with audio examples.