feature request: calibrate using cents not hertz

[TallKite]

Musicians don't like to specify a pitch as a frequency in hertz. We'd rather specify it as a cents offset from one of the twelve notes of 12edo calibrated to A-440. That's the language our 12edo tuners speak, and that's the language we think in.

On the "reference frequency" screen, you could keep the part that selects a note from the microtonal tuning, but remove the octave numbers (another benefit, less to scroll through). Have the notes run from A up to just short of the A an octave higher, G# or vA or whatever. Replace the frequency input with inputs for standard note and cents offset. The standard note is a 12edo note, displayed as A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# but stored as a number 0 to 11. Cents offset ranges from -50 to 50. Then frequency = 440 * (2 ^ (standardNote/12 + centsOffset/1200)).

[thetwom]

I cannot agree with this. I understand that different groups of musicians might have agreed to tune based on that sense, but this would take away the essence of a reference note. Let me explain:

Temperaments and cents are all about ratios. We relate one note to the other by a frequency ratio (ok, I tell you nothing new here). The reference frequency is the single point, which connects the world of ratios to the physical world of frequencies. Your suggestion would contradict this philosophy by staying in the world of ratios and hiding the remaining physical reference.

About the suggestion to have 12edo as reference notes, this would introduce an (in my opinion confusing) indirection. As you know, not all edos namings are a superset of edo12 naming. So you need mechanisms how to connect the edo12 naming with the other edo namings. How this is done would have to explained or would remain a mystery to the user.

To my knowledge, the reference or chamber tone is not about tuning up or down an instruments by cents, but to have a common reference. As you e.g. can read in wikipedia, this is not always 440Hz, but can it differ. If playing in a group, one has to agree to a common reference. If playing alone, it very rarely matters.

The current ways makes things transparent: It clearly connects a frequency to a note (and here the octave is also important). No assumptions or implications needed.

So in summary, I do not see the benefit about defining a reference as cents relative to 440Hz, but I see just additional indirections and implications. However, I am open to understand why one would do that :-).

[zunaidFarouque]

I guess the idea of @TallKite sounds too rigid because in the comment, he set the reference to a fixed frequency (A-440).
Different musicians use different reference frequencies, and agreeing with the rest of the members when playing in a group is crucial.
So, if this gets implemented, there must be a setting for reference frequency.

It is also true that after matching up the reference, musicians use notes and cents for communication.

Also, regarding the octaves, i guess the interface he is trying to explain looks like PitchLab app (discontinued but still popular among musicians)
Check the app here please-> https://pitchlab-pro.fileplanet.com/apk/download

Combining the ideas from both comment, i think this will be useful.