If there are 2 waves with the same amplitude and frequency produced by 2 different sources, let's say a piano and a guitar, why do they sound different?
For example, a Piano playing one of the lower E notes, and the guitar playing an open E string. Both are, let's say for the sake of simplicity, 5000Hz. They would be the same note, but there would be a noticable diffference in the sound. Why?
(Possibly) Rather difficult SOUND question. For Grades 11+.
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CronoTriggerfan
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It's material and acoustics. Sound has more room to reverbirate in a piano; also, a padded piano mallet produces a different sound than a stiff guitar pick. Also, the wood in a piano or guitar may be more absorbant/less acoustic than that of the other. I'm in 8-9 and I knew that!
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CTFan
EDIT: Damn, Daguuy and Sky beat me to it!
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eastsider_1
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Octaves are only and simply the original note's frequency x2.vb_master wrote:They are a different octive.
A0 = 27.5 Hz
A1 = 55.0 Hz
A2 = 110.0 Hz
...
A7 = 3520.0 Hz
A0 is an octave lower than A1.
On a guitar, the A string is tuned at 440 Hz, standard tuning - Which is A4 on piano, which is also tuned at 440 Hz.
Don't look at me, I just play guitar.
EDIT: By the way, I'm in 9th grade. Can you not trust me?
PS: Summer time, screw 9th grade!
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usbcd36
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There's how long it resonates before the sound starts to drop off (amplitude decreases), there's the simple shape of the wave (remember: there's sine, square, sawtooth and triangle, but infinite possible combinations), there's the sound that the action of starting the vibration makes (pluck sounds different than hit or blow), distortion, and overtones.
If you want to look at some of the waves, go over to ocremix.org and download one of the chiptune players with oscilloscope display. They have a huge selection of music that will play on them, and you can turn off all but a single instrument to look it its wave alone.
Alternatively, get a simple tone generator application and mess around with different types of waves. It should be simple to look up what the waves look like.
If you want to look at some of the waves, go over to ocremix.org and download one of the chiptune players with oscilloscope display. They have a huge selection of music that will play on them, and you can turn off all but a single instrument to look it its wave alone.
Alternatively, get a simple tone generator application and mess around with different types of waves. It should be simple to look up what the waves look like.
what people are saying in different ways, is that instruments do not produce pure tones.
if you got two different sine wave generators from two diffferent companies, they would indeed produce identical notes. but an instrument is not a sine wave generator. the tones they produce are very "drity" - there are resonance frequencies from the body of the instrument (and nearby objects) added in, harmonics, and attenuation of certiain frequencies all going on at once.
plus, run a guitar through an amp and you can start talking about frequency response of various components, clipping, etc.
overall, theres some pretty complicated interactions going on to produce some pretty unique, completely non-periodic waveforms.
if you got two different sine wave generators from two diffferent companies, they would indeed produce identical notes. but an instrument is not a sine wave generator. the tones they produce are very "drity" - there are resonance frequencies from the body of the instrument (and nearby objects) added in, harmonics, and attenuation of certiain frequencies all going on at once.
plus, run a guitar through an amp and you can start talking about frequency response of various components, clipping, etc.
overall, theres some pretty complicated interactions going on to produce some pretty unique, completely non-periodic waveforms.
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CronoTriggerfan
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I play piano and guitar; been to Blue Lake and Interlochien for a few summers, I think I'd know.-
legoboy
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Even if they are the same wavelength (same note, same octave), they sound different because of the shape of the wave. Such as a trumpet produces a square wave, someone talking produces a jagged wave, a guitar with serious overdrive would be really jagged, etc... If you have access to an oscilloscope you can see this.
Sorry... my dad is a science prof. I'm a junior in college, and I had to take his class for a general equation requirement (man that class was boring). Well, I'm finally transferring to a different campus for the next 2-3 year (yeah, I'm in a 5 year major).
Sorry... my dad is a science prof. I'm a junior in college, and I had to take his class for a general equation requirement (man that class was boring). Well, I'm finally transferring to a different campus for the next 2-3 year (yeah, I'm in a 5 year major).