alt Hacker News> As we all know, the foundation of Western diatonic music theory is ¹²√2, the ratio between the frequencies of successive semitones.
Nods knowingly. Yes, of course. I definitely know this.
Replies
brianberns • today at 1:02 AM
I had the same lack, so I walked myself through it from the very start: https://brianberns.github.io/01-SineWaves.html
In a nutshell:
An octave (for example from a C to the next C) is a doubling in frequency. In the Western diatonic system, there are 12 notes per octave. (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B). Notes are "evenly spaced" within the octave - every note has the same ratio between its frequency and the frequency of the next note. Hence, that ratio is ¹²√2