Note Frequencies.

Nicked from the 'best music for Prat' Thread this table was referanced by michealb?

Code:

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                            NOTE FREQUENCIES (Hz)
      +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                            OCTAVE                                    |
+-----+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|NOTE |  0 |  1 |   2 |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |   7  |   8  |   9   |  10   |
+-----+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  A  |13.7|27.5| 55.0|110.0|220.0|440.0| 880.0|1760.0|3520.0| 7040.0|14080.0|
|A#/Bb|14.6|29.1| 58.3|116.5|233.1|466.2| 932.4|1864.7|3729.4| 7458.9|14917.8|
|  B  |15.4|30.9| 61.7|123.5|247.0|493.9| 987.8|1975.7|3951.3| 7902.7|15805.3|
|  C  |16.4|32.7| 65.4|130.8|261.6|523.3|1046.6|2093.2|4186.5| 8372.9|16745.8|
|C#/Db|17.3|34.6| 69.3|138.6|277.2|554.4|1108.8|2217.7|4435.5| 8871.1|17742.1|
|  D  |18.4|36.7| 73.4|146.8|293.7|587.4|1174.8|2349.7|4699.5| 9398.9|18797.8|
|D#/Eb|19.4|38.9| 77.8|155.6|311.2|622.4|1244.8|2489.5|4979.1| 9958.1|19161.3|
|  E  |20.6|41.2| 82.4|164.9|329.7|659.4|1318.8|2637.7|5275.3|10550.6|21101.3|
|  F  |21.8|43.7| 87.3|174.7|349.3|698.7|1397.3|2794.6|5589.2|11178.4|22356.8|
|F#/Gb|23.1|46.2| 92.5|185.1|370.1|740.2|1480.4|2960.8|5921.8|11843.5|23687.1|
|  G  |24.4|49.0| 98.0|196.1|392.1|784.3|1568.2|3137.1|6274.1|12548.2|25096.4|
|G#/Ab|26.0|51.9|103.9|207.7|415.5|830.9|1661.9|3323.7|6647.4|13294.8|29589.7|
+-----+----------------------------------------------------------------------+



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From the comments on the thread, it would appear Bass guitar and standard double bass play down to E at 44.2 Hz. With extended/5 string Bass playing down to C at 32Hz.

So who knows other freqencies we listen to.

From this table I Guess middle C is at 523 Hz with a typcal piano going down to the A at 55Hz and up to the A at 7000Hz.


Who knows other frequency ranges, Male/femaile voice, Bass Drum, cymbol etc etc.

I find this quite interesting, others may not

Sorry i don't seem to be able to get the table lining up very well

 

greeny - if you use the "code" tag it sort out the alignment (I just edited your post and put it in).

ie: <code> some text you want lined up </code>

Replace the <> with [] when actually posting - I used <> because otherwise it wouldn't have shown up.

Michael.

 

Yeh, good Idea.

I had tried the <FONT=courier new> but this hadn't worked.

Thanks

 

Actually you're an octave out - the concert A is defined as 440Hz and middle C is of course below this. A modern piano in fact goes down to 27Hz although by the time you get that low you're hearing an awful lot of overtones as well as the fundamental. Edited to add: and if you're going to call yourself a bass voice you need to get down to at the very least the G at 98Hz, and on occasion to the E below that (or lower! - the Rachmaninov Vespers has the famous passage descending to a low B IIRC ). Note that male pop vocals are much more typically at least an octave above that G, ie. more like the 200Hz range.

 

(PeteH pipped me to almost exactly the same opening sentence). Baroque orchestras will frequently tune a bit lower (e.g. 421Hz).

There's a table of typical frequency ranges here. Note that this is only the fundamental frequency of the note though, and the timbre of the instrument is goverened by the harmonics extending many octaves above (e.g. I once looked at a trumpet on a frequency analyser and the harmonic series showed no signs of dying away well up to 20kHz even for a mid rnage note).

Those for the stringed instruments are just about right, although the upper limit is a pretty moveable feast, depending on how good the player is. I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is for voices though (as I know virtually nothing technical about singing)because it lists the bottom note of a bass voice as F, yet there are a few pieces, e.g. the Rachmaninov Vespers (admittedly the extreme example) where the basses have to get down to a low Bb (58.3). I can just about get down there myself although it's not a pretty sound (although still about as pleasant as the rest of my vocal range!). (Ah - Pete got there first too - I'm pretty sure it is a Bb though )

 

I do find it somewhat amazing that the piano can play nearly an octave lower than a double bass.

These figures would somewhat support sideshowbob's assertion that losing Bass below say 30-35 hz is not actually going to matter that much. So excluding the church organ (that's not too prominent in none classical music) what else might we be missing if we miss 20-> 30 Hz

 

As discussed in another thread recently the modern-day double bass normally goes down to B or C, ie 31-33Hz so in fact the piano isn't really that much lower.

Below 30Hz, discounting organs and the bottom couple of keys of the piano you're pretty much only really considering some of the big drums - bass drum thwacks are pretty important in lots of classical music IMHO though Anyone know the range of a contrabassoon BTW?

 

Here's another link to low frequency instruments. It appears someone's made a 128' clarinet that goes down to 4Hz!

I was actually searching for contrabass clarinet (first used at the opening to Holst's "Planets"), but that (35Hz in standard form) doesn't go down quite as low as the contrabassoon (29Hz). There appears to be a 5/6/7 string bass guitar that goes down to 23Hz.

 

Re: Re: Note Frequencies.

I'm sure you're right - normally I'd put on a CD to check but I haven't actually got a recording of the Vespers :yikes:. I see that Kaljuste's Swedish recording on Virgin has just been reissued cheap on HMV's own label so I might have a look at that. I like the sound of the giant clarinet BTW - I seem to remember that Berlioz once said his ideal orchestra would have something like a 120-piece string section including 4 imaginary instruments tuned an octave below a double bass.

When you see it sitting there in front of you with the lid up a concert grand piano is pretty damn enormous - and obviously the bottom strings run the whole length of the "long side", which must be longer than the length between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard on a double bass.