Is this an example of "harmonics?"

jjlucash · Post by **jjlucash** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:44 am

This is something I've been wondering for years. When there's a deep enough sound (something like a man's voice, or a bass guitar), a faint tone can be heard as well, about half an octave higher or lower. What is this phenomenon called?

inakiesarte · Post by **inakiesarte** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:19 am

Lets take the violin as an example.

The vibration of the violin's string can vibrate at many frequencies at the same time.
When the tension and lenght of the string are " just right", or in tune, bowing the string
sets it to vibrating at the standard A, which is defined at 440 vibrations per second, or
440 Hz. This number of vibrations per second is called the fundamental frequency.

The interesting thing about it is that the same string, with the same tension and lenght,
also vibrates at twice 440 Hz or 880 Hz.

The 440 Hz vibration or fundamental frequency is also called the first harmonic,
and the 880 Hz is called the second harmonic.

Then we will have in the same way a third( 1320 Hz), fourth ( 1760 Hz) or fifth harmonic( 2200 Hz),
and so on...

Thanks!

jjlucash · Post by **jjlucash** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 10:39 am

inakiesarte wrote:Lets take the violin as an example.

The vibration of the violin's string can vibrate at many frequencies at the same time.
When the tension and lenght of the string are " just right", or in tune, bowing the string
sets it to vibrating at the standard A, which is defined at 440 vibrations per second, or
440 Hz. This number of vibrations per second is called the fundamental frequency.

The interesting thing about it is that the same string, with the same tension and lenght,
also vibrates at twice 440 Hz or 880 Hz.

The 440 Hz vibration or fundamental frequency is also called the first harmonic,
and the 880 Hz is called the second harmonic.

Then we will have in the same way a third( 1320 Hz), fourth ( 1760 Hz) or fifth harmonic( 2200 Hz),
and so on...

Thanks!

Thanks so much.

kristoffer1989 · Post by **kristoffer1989** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 10:54 am

and when all these hz don't match thats when we call it noise

for ex. 440, 750, 890, 1070 and so on, thats noisenotes =)

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:05 pm

not to be a nit, but actually you would call that "inharmonic."

noise, in the context of this discussion, would be sound at every frequency with equal power.

.lm.

hurlingdervish · Post by **hurlingdervish** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:22 pm

tuvan throat singing?

ooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:31 pm

Open up Operator and without changing any settings, play a note. That is a sine wave, which is the only sound without harmonics.

Now, on your first oscillator click the 'Oscillator' button (the other choice is 'envelope'. All the little vertical lines are possible harmonics to add to the base sine wave. Click on those lines to add harmonics at various volumes. Listen for how it changes the sound.

kristoffer1989 · Post by **kristoffer1989** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:56 pm

leisuremuffin wrote:not to be a nit, but actually you would call that "inharmonic."

noise, in the context of this discussion, would be sound at every frequency with equal power.

.lm.

inharmonic ok. that sounds right. I got to disagree on the second though. White noise is what you are talking about. Pink noise f.ex is not the same. BLAH i know my english suck sometimes. hope you understand parts of what i am talking about haha

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:00 pm

kristoffer1989 wrote:inharmonic ok. that sounds right. I got to disagree on the second though. White noise is what you are talking about. Pink noise f.ex is not the same. BLAH i know my english suck sometimes. hope you understand parts of what i am talking about haha

white noise is sine waves at every frequency in random amounts of energy in each band.

pink noise is white noise shaped to have equal power per octave to match how the human ear perceives noise levels.

Operator used to have sine, sine1, sine2 etc. sine was the only pure sine wave, sine1 had the first harmonic, sin2 added the second harmonic to sine1 etc. I guess they took that out because the the new GUI interface.

gjm · Post by **gjm** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:21 am

Just as a random aside note, when I did marine design we used the sine wave as a model to design the underwater forward section of a displacement yachts hull. The ratio of volume of water that was displaced from the most forward section to the section represented as the center of gravity of the displaced volume should represent a perfect sinusoidal curve when graphed in 2D. The flow of water over this type of shape was said to have created the least amount of disturbance and therefore maximize speed. The curve of the aft shape was slightly different being called tricordial. This 2nd curve never made sense when applied to the distribution of volume, and I got in trouble a few times for calling it out. At the time I was unaware of String Theory and had banished music to the dark depths of my anus. Maybe the construction of music, sound and harmonics have more relevance to our everyday physical world than I realize.

/End meaningless muse\

Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"

Re: Is this an example of "harmonics?"