We will later explain how to calculate cents, for now, we will give an example of interval comparison using cents.
Temeperament | C4 | E4 | Cents | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Major third, Pitagorean tuning | 260 | 329.06 | 408 | ![]() |
Major third, just intonation | 260 | 325 | 386 | ![]() |
There's a 22 cents difference (408 - 386 = 22) between the thirds (thanks to the magic of cents, we calculate the difference by subtracting). In equal temperament, a half step has 100 cents. Therefore, the difference between thirds is almost 1/4 semitone. The use of cents helps to visualize the difference between the intervals.
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