← Why chords sound good

Live instrument

Play it yourself

Connect a MIDI keyboard, or use your computer keys. Every note you hold appears as its own wave, and you can watch them add up to the one sound you hear.

Tone
Window
0 msslowed down 300× so you can watch it move20 ms

Computer keys: A W S E D F T G Y H U J K … play from C4. Z / X shift the octave, and Space works as a sustain pedal.

The harmonic ladders of everything you're holding, on one frequency scale. Each note carries harmonics at 2×, 3×, 4×… its own frequency. Where rungs land close but not equal, the sound gets rough.
Roughness over the last 30 seconds. Play a cluster, then resolve it to a major chord, and watch the line fall.