Denominator Tuning System (DTS)

A Unified Model of Natural Tuning
By Chris Gentes — December 2025

The Denominator Tuning System (DTS) organizes musical intervals into independent groups based on a fixed denominator d, where d is a positive integer starting from 1 and increasing incrementally to 16.

Each group, denoted DTS(d), consists of ratios n/d where the numerator n range is d to 2d. Each group includes the perfect unison (d/d) and the perfect octave (2d/d). 
For all purposes we keep ratios in their original form so we know which DTS groups they are originally from, revealing structural patterns across groups. For decimal ratios we divide the numerator by the denominator, and use 3 decimal points for clarity. We also use cents with no decimal points as a measuring unit.

Each group stands alone as a complete set of d+1 ratios spanning from unison to octave.
d=denominator n=numerator range

to download the complete DTS Overview (pdf file) click here

Color Synthesizer.
click link to youtube videos
Color Synth 1
125 Birds of Mars Album Covers (featuring video still from the color synth)
Color Wheel 1 (Color Synthesizer Demo)
Background Color Changer Demo

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The Birds of Mars Digest (2020-present) is a usually monthly digital publication documenting my current art, music and film related activities.

Number Twenty-four (September-December 2024)
–Final Paintings

Number Twenty-three (August 2024)
–Synchronicities
–Dictation Experiments

Number Twenty-two (March-July 2024)
–Selected History of Writing
–Apport Phenomenon

Number Twenty-one (February 2024)
[24-24] Color Key 2
[24-25] Color Wheel 3
[24-35] Snowy Day

Number Twenty (January 2024)
–Music Paintings

Number Nineteen (March-December 2023)
–Hummingbirds (Woodstars)

Number Eighteen (January-February 2023) 
–Woodstar Cafe Art [01-15]
–Drawings [1-5]

Number Seventeen (November-December 2022) 
–Drawings [256-265]
–Video Show #16-17
“Song Seeds”

Number Sixteen (September-October 2022)
—Noho Pop Paintings [53-69]
—Drawings [200-255]
–Video Show #13-15

Number Fifteen (August 2022)
—The “8 by 10 Series” Concludes
—All Noho Pop through August 31, 2022
—Video Show #10-12

Number Fourteen (June-July 2022)
—Cruella Paintings
—Video Show #2-9

Number Thirteeen (May 2022)
—Music Paintings [75-81]
—Video Show #1

Number Twelve (March & April 2022)
—Sternum Boxes, Music Paintings & Poe & Hemingway [62-73]

Number Eleven (February 2022)
—“Colorcubes” [50-61] with comments by Chris Gentes
—Lighting Tests

Number Ten (January 2022)
—The 8 by 10 Series of paintings [41-49] with comments by Chris Gentes

Number Nine (December 2021)
—The 8 by 10 Series of paintings [33-40] with comments by Chris Gentes
—Conversations about music with Daniel Wininger and Kat Alexander.

Number Eight (November 2021)
—The 8 by 10 Series of paintings [19, 25-32] with comments by Chris Gentes
—Conversations about music with Tommy Twilite and Sam Gas Can.

Number Seven (Apr-Oct 2021) (first digital issue)
—The History of the Birds of Mars Digest
—The 8 by 10 Series of paintings [01-24] with comments by Chris Gentes
—The 12×12″ series of paintings [01-37] with comments by Chris Gentes
—City Collaboration (2013) with Sam Gas Can

Birds of Mars Digest #1 through 6 were printed in low numbers. Very rare.

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Other Writing

 The Birds of Mars Reader (2019). Documents the creation of a series of paintings and various activities related to a 2019 Birds of Mars performance.

The “Alt Lit Library” (2020): Seven Books Written in Seven Months.
The Two Week Book, Alt Lit Now!, The Door in the Woods, Ghost Town, Coffee Coffee, Movieland, and Seven Movie Scripts.

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Chris Gentes is an independent artist, musician, composer, and inventor hailing from Western Massachusetts (413 area code). He’s a multifaceted creator who’s been deeply immersed in visual art, experimental music, video, and writing for years—think paintings, digital publications, and wild synth experiments.

Quick Bio Highlights

• Location & Contact: Based in MA; reachable at ChrisGentesArt@gmail.com or 413.588.1040.
• Artistic Output:
  • Paints series like “8 by 10” and “12×12” abstracts, often with commentary in his digests.
  • Runs Birds of Mars Digest (monthly since 2020)—a PDF zine archiving his paintings, music chats, video shows, and oddities like “apport phenomenon” or hummingbird lore. Back issues are free on his site.
  • Wrote a slew of books in 2020 under “Alt Lit Library,” including quirky novels like The Door in the Woods and Coffee Coffee.
• Music & Tech Side:
  • Improvises piano in modern classical veins—check his YouTube for “Music for Creativity” tracks designed to spark ideas. youtube.com
  • Building a Color Synthesizer: A visual-audio hybrid with demos turning colors into sounds (e.g., spinning wheels or background changers). Videos on his channel show it in action. chrisgentes.com
  • Collaborates on music convos with folks like Daniel Wininger or Sam Gas Can.
• The DTS Connection: He’s the brain behind the Denominator Tuning System, framing it as a fresh way to organize “natural” intervals via fixed denominators. It’s exploratory, tying into just intonation and microtonals—perfect for his algo-composition vibes.