If “Bob” was singing an F-sharp, and “Lisa” was also singing an F-sharp, shouldn’t they sound the same? After all, they’re singing at the same pitch, and the same note, are they not?
In: Biology
So, the main note you hear is called the *fundamental frequency*, it’s what you’d consider the note they’re singing. So, let’s say that F# is the fundamental frequency, the F# is the loudest pitch in the sound. However, the sound of the voice – or even an instrument – is made up of many many different pitches in different amounts. This creates *timbre*, or the “qualities” of the sound you’re hearing. So, in actuality, while they’re singing the same *note*, the *pitches* involved in the sound they’re making are not the same. That’s why two humans, or two different instruments, sound different despite playing the same note.
Tone generators generate a single *sine wave* of a single pitch, so two tone generators tuned to the same pitch sound the same because there are no additional pitches that make up the sound.
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