CH.

21 Musical Sounds
Musical Tones have three
main characteristics
1) Pitch
2) Loudness
3) Quality
Pitch-Relates to frequency.
In musical sounds, the
sound wave is composed of
many different
frequencies, so the pitch
refers to the lowest
frequency component.


Slow Vibrations = Low
Frequency.
Fast Vibrations = High
Frequency.
Ex: Concert A = 440
vibrations per second.
Intensity: Depends on the
Amplitude.
Intensity is proportional to
the square of the
amplitude.
In symbols: I A
2

Intensity is measured in
units of Watts/m
2
.
(i.e. power per unit area)

Another closely related
quantity is the intensity level,
or sound level.

Sound level is measured in
decibels. (dB)

The decibel scale is based on
the log function.
# dB =10 log(I/I
o
)
where I
o
= some reference
intensity, such as the
threshold of human hearing -
(I
o
= 10
-12
Watts/ m
2
)
Examples:
Source of Intensity Sound
Sound Level
Jet airplane 10
2
140
Disco Music 10
-1
110
Busy street
traffic 10
-5
70
Whisper 10
-10
20
Loudness: Physiological
sensation of sound detection.
The ear senses some frequencies
better than others.
Ex: A 3500Hz sound at 80 dB
sounds about twice as loud as a
125-Hz sound at 80dB.

Quality: A piano and a clarinet can both
play the note middle C, but we can
distinguish between them.
Why? - Because the quality of the sound
is different.

The quality is also called the Timbre.
The number and relative loudness of the
partial tones determines the Quality of
the sound.

Musical sounds are composed of
the superposition of many tones
which differ in frequency.
The various tones are called
partial tones.
The partial tone with the lowest
frequency is called the
fundamental frequency.
Fundamental or 1st harmonic
2nd harmonic
3rd harmonic
NODE
Antinode
L
L = /2
L =
L
Fundamental or 1st harmonic
2nd harmonic
Finding the n
th
harmonic
(2L/2) f
2
= (2L) f
1

f
2
= 2f
1
------> f
n
= nf
1

L = n/2 ----->
n
= 2L/n
where (n = 1,2,3,4,)
v =
1
f
1
v =
2
f
2

2
f
2
=
1
f
1

Musical Instruments Scale&Octave
The tone an octave above has
twice the frequency as the
original tone.
Scale: A succession of notes of
frequencies that are in simple ratios
to one another.
Octave: The eighth full tone (or 12th
successive note in a scale) above or
below a given tone.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 3 4 5
Whole
Tones
Half Tones
We can decompose a given
waveform into its individual
partials by Fourier Analysis.

Musical sounds are composed of
a fundamental plus various
partials or overtones.

Joseph Fourier, in 1822,
discovered that a complicated
periodic wave could be
constructed by simple
sinusoidal waves, and likewise
deconstructed into simple
sinusoidal waves.


The decomposition of a
complicated waveform into simpler
sinusoidal waveforms is known as
Fourier Analysis
The construction of a complicated
waveform from simpler sinusoidal
waveforms is known as Fourier
Synthesis.
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
2/p[sin(px)+1/3sin(3px)+1/5sin(5px)]
Example of Fourier Synthesis
COMPACT DISC
Digital Audio
Howstuffworks "How Analog-Digital
Recording Works"
t1 t2 t3
Analogue
Signal
Digital
Signal
End of Chapter 20