[n997]

Originally Posted by adXok

You have attached equally distant and same size of vertically placed rectangles next to one another with some of them shaded in dark (gray, black) - this is not the piano keyboard, rather an equal distant (simplified geometrically) representation of it - a uniform layout of it!

We seem to be talking past eachother here. The upper half of piano keyboard is part of the piano keyboard, and for practical purposes [that upper half] is uniform, just like in the picture I posted.

Piano keyboards' upper half visually matches the distances between pitches as equal steps - whereas on a guitar, for example, one can see that distance between frets is not equal. Thus, piano keyborad (the upper half of it) looks like semitones viewed on a logarithmic scale.

It's convenient that piano keyboards' upper half corresponds to logarithmic frequency scale as one simple row. It provides a good standard reference and helps in all kinds of tasks, from composing to EQing.

The standard piano keyboard is also a good compromise for playability with human hands, in part specifically because differences between black and white keys.

Originally Posted by adXok

You can also shade the rectangles to represent any scale or arpeggio you want [...]in order to stay diatonic - as a visual help to which 'correct' notes to choose.

I see such shadings as a hindrance rather than help. Black and white keys on a piano function as a standard reference, both in piano rolls and when playing by touch without looking at the keyboard.

This is especially noticeable when composing material that has frequent key and scale changes. In those cases some kind of standard reference is a necessity - and the black and white key pattern is decent enough compromise to be that standard.

One could of course invent many variations of standards, just like many of us customize Reaper specifically for our own workflows. But I think it's good to have at least one common standard for the sake of understanding and cooperation - sort of how basic English functions in current world.

Originally Posted by adXok

There is nothing logarithmic about our hearing.

At low frequencies, one semitone can be just a few Hz, while at high frequencies the semitone becomes hundreds and eventually thousands of Hz. For example, at A=440Hz and Mid C = C3, difference between E0 and F0 is about 2.4Hz, while the difference between E6 and F6 is about 156.8 Hz.


In other words, we hear pitch at a logarithmic scale, when compared to the linear Hz scale. This can be easily visualized in a spectrum analyser by swithcing between linear and logarithmic display modes.