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In Reply to: The bottom octave: how important? posted by Feanor on November 02, 2003 at 10:00:53:
One of my pet peeves- thinking of a note from a musical instrument as being defined by a single precise frequency. A note may be defined as 42 Hz or some other exact number, but on an instrument, especially a good acoustical one, there's a wealth of other sonic information present that must be conveyed for the recording to simulate the actual "note" as played by that instrument. There are harmonics above the principal tone, and subharmonics below it, and a good recording will contain them, plus the attack and decay of the note. Most people recognize these on a subconscious level, but they add a lot to the tone and perception of real music.
Follow Ups:
"There are harmonics above the principal tone, and subharmonics below it, and a good recording will contain them . . . ."So are you saying an instrument produces tones below the fundamental note played?
There are actually nodes on a violin string where you can play a harmonic (you don't press the string down all the way-just touch it and bow) and it will sound a subharmonic a full octave below the pitch of the open string's primary tone. There's *lots* of info in good instruments!As RBP says, this is what makes different instruments different- otherwise music would all sound like little beeps that comes outa computers. Check out the links on this thread- the sites put together by Paul C are incredible if you're really into this stuff.
When both instruments are playing "A" which the fundamental is very very close to 440hZ (depending on the tuning meathodology)...the only reason they sound like a f horn and clarinet is the harmonic content.You Sir are right!
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