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Frequency Range Of Various Musical Instruments


zuzu

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Are these charts showing just the fundamental notes, or the harmonics too?

I found a graph a while back that showed the entire spectrum content of a full grand piano - kinda interesting that it dug down to 14Hz and went up to like 30kHz or something like that. I forget and have been trying to hunt it down ever since. The website had similar data on a bunch of other wild instruments as well.

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The Atlantic City Theatre organ (now, unfortunately not playable):

Also, when the 64' and 422/3' are combined, the resultant tone would simulate a 128' stop, which would sound a 4 Hz tone on low C.

Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about...

Dave

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The fine print on the bar graph states: The harmonic frequencies generated by instruments and voices extend off the right side of the chart, though at volumes far below those of the fundamental frequencies shown. The A above middle C is usually set at the standard tuning frequency of 440hz.

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I don't buy it...no trumpet player in the world can turn the volume down to 90dB at 4 feet [8-|]

But seriously, I'd like to see measurements like this taken on quite a few instruments - and perhaps do some listening testing to see if super tweeters and all that shnazz really make a difference. I know there have been times when I can't hear a certain high frequency, but I can certainly feel it in my face/eyes. Sometimes it even hurts if you crank it up loud enough.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not many instruments seem to go down that low I would agree - large church organs probably being the main exception. Of course many recordings incorporate sounds lower than normal musical instruments go. The Heartbeat on DSOTM for example is supposed to go down to 27 Hz and I would argue is an integral part of the musical effect. Also if you listen to any electronic music that can go down much lower so that even the lower limit of 20Hz on a CD is cutting off some of the sound.

Oh - and if you ever record an elephant they communicate over long ranges at about 10 Hz apparently.

So if you dont listen to modern electronic music, organs or elephants you probably arent missing much.

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I've made endless test runs from 200 Hz down to 10 Hz and while I can clearly hear a 30 Hz tone, I can't hear a 25 Hz tone at all, or anything below that. It shows on the SPL meter, but I can't hear it. Has anyone else noticed this? Age-related hearing loss is usually mentioned in regard to the upper frequencies. Wonder if it's an issue at the bottom end as well?

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