Questions tagged [frequency]
Frequency is a property of any repeating event, and in music, the phenomenon of pitch is qualitatively assessed via a sound wave's frequency, or number of vibrations per second. Higher sounds have higher frequency, and lower-pitched sounds have lower frequencies.
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Are the terms time and rhythm interchangeable?
I’ve been reading a few books that are titled as if rhythm is a term that is interchangeable with time. I.e, I would have personally titled them something like the study of time in music or elements ...
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What is heard when a tuning fork is struck?
When a tuning fork is struck I hear two tones. From a distance I can hear a high octave frequency of the pitch of the tuning fork. Though, if I listen to it closely (closer to my ears), I also hear a ...
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Frequencies for Bass Guitar EQing
As a hobbiest musician I am writing and recording songs in my home studio; mainly rock, funk and smooth jazz. My primary instrument is the bass guitar where I send a Line Out on my amp to my Audio ...
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Am I hearing overtones or beats? is it normal to hear them?
I started learning piano not so long ago and there is something that's confusing me a lot: when I play some notes at the same time (chords or two notes) sometimes I hear a second higher vibrating ...
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Is there any generic motivation for building scales which are supersets of the desired key(s)?
In conventional music, the octave is divided into the twelve frequency Chromatic Scale, but then only subsets of those twelve frequencies form the key used at any given time. I understand why the ...
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Modeling end-blown flute instrument using adaptive filter
I want to find the resonant frequency of specific end-blown flute called Persian ney, Using LMS in arrangement of system identification. Two signal is needed for algorithm:
system excitation (x)
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Frequency ratio, Wavelength ratio, and chords
Here is a plot of list of wavelengths λ ($\lambda$, inverse proportional to frequencies f) of some strings, or sound waves.
Let us call the wavelengths as
λ1: λ2: λ3: λ4: λ5: λ6: λ7 and so on
= 1: 1/...
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How vowels are expressed in musical notation, the case of B5 in Lilypond
I understand that 1000Hz is B5 plus 21 cents.
What is this note and how can it be represented in Lilypond notation?
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What is the reason a given note can have different "sounds"
People, instruments, objects, etc. all are capable of producing "sounds" that sound different (not sure the proper term for this) but can produce the same note.
Given that sound can be ...
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Getting played note frequency using Unity and FFT
I am working on a project using the Unity game engine, The idea of the project is that the user plays a note on a guitar (and other instruments) and the app should display the note frequency that the ...
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Calculating the frequency of quarter tones
I have several questions on the subject of note frequencies and their ranges:
First Question
How should I calculate the frequency of a quarter tone, such as the half-flat (half-bemol) that is found in ...
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Why don't two Boomwhackers with a one-octave pitch difference have a 2:1 length ratio?
I frequently use the tuned percussion tubes Boomwhackers in my elementary music teaching. I noticed something odd about them.
When I compare the smaller and larger C tubes, they sound one octave ...
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is there an instrument that plays all notes for the same volume profile (over time) regardless of pitch
So you know how when playing a stringed instrument a low note will always play longer than a high note.
Here is a good question about it - When we press a piano key, why does a high pitch note not run ...
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Why do two identical notes never cancel each other out?
If we consider a note as a sine function with a certain frequency (ignoring timbre), if you start playing another sine function, even with the same frequency but starting at a different offset, ...
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How to Identify Sheet Music Type, Era, or Origin?
Asking for some help here…maybe someone will recognize what kind of sheet music this is.
I’m attempting to recreate the framed sheet music hung on the wall in the photos. This is my father sometime in ...
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If a whole tone is a 9:8 ratio, and a major third is a 5:4 ratio, and a major third is two whole tones, then why (9/8)^2 != 5/4?
If a whole tone is a 9:8 ratio between frequencies, and a major third is a 5:4 ratio between frequencies, and a major third is two whole tones, then to replicate two whole tones, wouldn't one just ...
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Help understanding frequency ratios and string length
This music book I'm reading taught me about frequency ratios as the basis for scales, but it doesn't explain it well enough for me, so I'm trying to learn more about it on my own. I want to know how ...
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Why does major 2nd have more harmonics than major 3rd?
I was watching this video about Just-intonation tuning system. In this video he is explaining how the harmonics work.
He is explaining that the first harmonic is created by dividing a string into half,...
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Does the lip really vibrate at the same frequency of a brass instrument?
The resonance of woodwind brass instruments can be modeled after a closed cylindrical pipe and calculated by the equation f = (nv)/(4L) where n denotes the number of harmonics, v the velocity of sound ...
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How to calculate the extra semitone in one circle of fifths
This is an extension to my previous question when I tried to do the math to prove the following statement:
going up 12 perfect fifths takes one up 7 octaves plus one-fourth
of a semitone extra
Going ...
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Why are the frequency ratios of notes in the Pythagorean scales 9/8 and 256/243?
In Pythagorean tuning, for every 7th semitones the frequency would increase by a factor of 3/2 (to get that harmonious perfect fifth). If the frequency of C4 is set to 256Hz, the frequency of G4 can ...
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Effect of octave on consonance [duplicate]
Was playing around on a keyboard (Casio WK-245, default St.GrPno tone) and I'm noticing that the same chord moved up an octave feels quite different. When I play Cmaj7(no inversions: C,E,G,B in that ...
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Producing single frequencies in Bitwig [closed]
How can single frequencies produced easily in bitwig?
Ableton's operator for example has an option to input a single frequency which you can easily change yourself, and when you press every note in ...
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Current consensus on consonant frequencies
I just read Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound
Book by Donald H. White and Harvey Elliott White and the book explains that consonant frequencies — those sounding "good" when ...
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what is a beat histogram and how is it different from spectrograms?
I am learning about audio signals for analytical purposes. I came across beat histograms and spectrograms. I understand that a spectrogram is all about frequency and time but I am confused about beat ...
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Visualization of Tones being played together
Recently I found this video showing the "visual representation" of sound waves.
I was trying to figure out how these shapes were being generated. I am interested in the parts where there is ...
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Why do "in tune" bass lines sometimes seem sharp to me?
I've noticed that certain bass and baritone register sounds often seem sharp to me, even when they are ostensibly in tune- the notes are checked with a tuner or generated by a digital synth that won't ...
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At what frequencies do you usually high/low pass male vocal doubles?
I'm speaking in general but if it depends on the vocal how can I find out by ear?
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What is the "Jazz Bass Mid Scoop"?
I've heard of the "Jazz Bass Mid Scoop", what exactly is this? Some people say that the "Scoop is generally 500-600 Hz", others say "The frequencies that cancel are different ...
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Difference between drum sounds and melody sounds
I would like to learn more about the kind of sounds used in music that can make a scale discernable. Regular drums for instance do a bad job, even if they can be tuned. I've no idea if that's true ...
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How to flatten frequencies like that
What I just didn’t work out. No multiband compressor will work that way. It's only a clipper or distortion that can do that.
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What is an All-Pass Filter? What are its uses?
Wikipedia says:
An all-pass filter is a signal processing filter that passes all frequencies equally in gain, but changes the phase relationship among various frequencies.
What does changes the ...
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Similarities between the frequencies 130.81 and 261.63 Hz [duplicate]
I have been learning to play guitar, and I wanted to look at it from a more physical point of view, because that is something I like to do. Maybe a similar question has been asked here, but I could ...
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How do polyphonic pitch-shifting algorithms handle doubled/tripled octaves?
I do not in the first place how polyphonic pitch shifters work. What happens internally when one that’s adding octaves (or simply, octaves are being played) is fed into another? Does it treat the ...
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Under what arithmetic conditions do collections of vibrations sound "nice"
I can't recall where but I had read somewhere (different places and different times) the following two pieces of advice:
when playing an interval of two notes one after the other at A-hertz and B-...
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Balancing audio frequency bands and instrument volumes for consistent audio quality in highly variable environments, software, and hardware?
I use GarageBand to write music but in theory this question could apply to any composition and recording workflow.
A problem I often run into is that different audio players seem to have their own &...
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Different frequency response despite having similar waveforms
I'm just comparing two pedals that generated square waves by using Audacity. The pedals are Homenoise Effects Serpent Cult silicon fuzz and Metasonix F1 distortion pedal.
First is the waveforms and ...
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What frequency ranges are most instruments in
I made a spectrum analyzer, but I'm struggling to find a range where I can cover the most instruments, but also still make the bars visible.
I tried the range 20Hz - 800 Hz but seems like some songs I ...
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What determines the tone coming from a pickup?
I hear a lot of hocus pocus in music. One such thing called "Premium" pickups are heralded as some must-have for a good sounding guitar.
To me, it seems like pickups are just electromagnets ...
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frequency components of C major scale
I was trying to replicate the notes of the C major scale on a circuit simulator and i found online that there are website that only give one frequency for a certain note in that octave, so i was ...
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What is meant by a 'simple' frequency ratio?
For the most part, I understand the application of simple ratios when determining consonance/dissonance, but I still don’t really know what makes one ratio more ‘simple’ than another. What really ...
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Is it mathematically possible to create an equal temperament which matches just interval ratios?
I've coded a Python app which lets us have any number of semitones in an octave in order to experiment with microtonal music.
I would like to ask if there's a possibility to create such an equal ...
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Why do we use geometric Progression?
It seems what's important in the progression of the frequencies in notes is...the difference in frequency of any two notes is not the same, but the ratio between any two notes of the same distance is ...
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Why were the frequencies for notes chosen?
I understand that the first note of each octave is twice the frequency of the first note from the octave before, but how are the frequencies for each note chosen subsequently after that. So far, I’ve ...
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Why am I unable to hear subtle differences in timbre?
An E an F, any octave, sound different; I'm not deaf to pitch. This is about timbral quality: I can hear the difference between a plucked string and an eBow'd string, but I can't hear pick vs finger. ...
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The discriminating power of experienced listeners
Consider a choir of n singers who sing the same tune in almost perfect unison.
When asked how many singers they do hear, test persons may say:
don't know
more than 3, 5, 10, ...
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ...
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Third resonant frequency when two notes are played
I have noticed that when two notes - relatively spaced apart, more than a tone and less than an octave - are played, there is a third frequency that can be heard, and this frequency lies between the ...
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How to calculate the "middle" tone between two given frequencies
For one octave, we double the frequency, so 400Hz to 800Hz is one octave higher. To get the tone that is perceived to be in the middle of those two frequencies is however not 600Hz but 400*1.059463⁶=~...
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How did musicians know what were the notes frequencies if they had no measuring tools? [duplicate]
Today we have devices that with the aid of a microphone can detect the frequency of a note. We can therefore calibrate all instruments and voices to a same pattern. But, how did people know how the ...
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Does the series of octaves (1, 2, 4, 8) have a name?
We call any series of frequencies which are multiples of 1,2,3,4,5... etc a harmonic series, and they define the notes (for example) C0-C1-G1-C2-E2-G2-Bb2-...
Is there a name for the series of ...
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