If you play the exact same same note on two different musical instruments the sound will not be the exact same. What changed and what stayed the same?

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(in the sense that you will know if you heard a piano or a guitar) what stayed the same and what changed with the sound wave? Second related question, if you get two people to say the word “hello” they will sound completely different but you will be able to hear that they both said hello. So in that case what changed with the sound wave and what stayed the same?

Sorry if it’s the wrong flair I put it as physics because sound waves so yeah

In: Physics

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A pure tone like say A defined as 440 Hz sounds nasty.

That’s what you get when you make a sound using a sine wave generator.

Just Google for some YouTube videos of examples.

Every single real world instrument when playing that same A note has 440Hz as the ‘defining’ frequency, but depending on the instrument there’s various side frequencies as well, that determine the actual sound quality.

Even something simple as whistling will at least have the overtones of double that major frequency present.

Pure sinus tones don’t sound pleasant. But mix and match dozens to hundreds of them and you have a non hash sounding tone.

The only sind every voice and instrument playing that A tone have in common, is that 440Hz plays a major role in the tone. 

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