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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST, Mikefule tone vs pitch (36) RE: tone vs pitch 15 Nov 03


Surely a 'pure' note has only a pitch, which is directly and only related to its frequency, or wavelength. Shorten the wavelength/increase the frequency, and you raise the pitch.

But a voice or instrument does not make a pure note. It makes a complex wave pattern which sounds not only like an F#, but also like a violin, or a reed, or whatever.

That quality which makes it sound LIKE a violin, reed, etc., is the 'tone' or (more correctly?) the 'timbre'.

So, I guess that if you could electronically record the whole sound of a violin playing a given note, you could map the various tones, overtones and undertones - notes of various related pitches which combine to make the timbre - and adjust one or more of them independently. In that context, I can sort of vaguely imagine that lowering one of the components of a complex note could make the whole note sound higher, or vice versa.

But does a scientist ask a folksinger for advice on qhuantum physics? No. So should we ask scientists for advice on music? No.


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