Physics of music - Article Index

Encyclopedia - Harmony: Encyclopedia - Harmony
Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity and chords, actual or implied, in music. It is sometimes referred to as the "vertical"...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Vibrating String: Encyclopedia - Vibrating String
A vibration in a string is a wave. Usually a vibrating string produces a sound whose frequency is constant. Therefore, since frequency ch...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Modern Amplifier Choices
Valve sound - Amplifier 'class'. Transistor amplifiers are almost always class AB push pull, because for a given power, Class AB allows...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Vibrating String: Encyclopedia Ii - Vibrating String - Speed Of Propagation Of The Wave
Let L be the length of the string, m its mass and T the tension. When the string is touched it bends as an arc of circle. Let R be the ra...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Multiphonic: Encyclopedia Ii - Multiphonic - Technique
On woodwind instruments, multiphonics can be produced either with new fingerings or by using different embouchures with conventional fing...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Modern Amplifiers
In more modern times, transistor amplifiers have become dominant, mainly because they are cheaper to produce, operate on lower voltages (...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Types Of String Insturuments
String instruments are usually categorized by the technique used to produce sound. In order for a string instrument to produce sound, its...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Types Of String Instruments
String instruments are usually categorized by the technique used to produce sound. In order for a string instrument to produce sound, its...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Audio System Measurements: Encyclopedia Ii - Audio System Measurements - Measurable Performance
Audio system measurements - Analog Electrical. Frequency response  The signal should be passed at least over the audible range (u...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Equal Temperament: Encyclopedia Ii - Equal Temperament - History
Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei) may have been the first person to advocate equal temperament (in a 1581 treatise). The first...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Mathematics Of Musical Scales: Encyclopedia Ii - Mathematics Of Musical Scales - Temperament
Western common practice music usually cannot be played in just intonation, even when it is confined to a single key. This is because the ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Musical Tuning: Encyclopedia Ii - Musical Tuning - Comparisons And Controversies Between Tunings
All musical tuning have advantages and disadvantages. Twelve tone equal temperament is the standard and most usual tuning system used in ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Harmonic Series Music: Encyclopedia Ii - Harmonic Series Music - Description Of The Harmonic Series
The lowest possible frequency of a harmonic oscillator is called its fundamental frequency. This frequency determines the musical pitch o...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Frequency Spectrum: Encyclopedia Ii - Frequency Spectrum - Spectrum Analysis
Analysis means decomposing something complex into simpler, more basic parts. As we have seen, there is a physical basis for modeling ligh...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Equal Temperament: Encyclopedia Ii - Equal Temperament - Twelve-tone Equal Temperament
The ratio between two adjacent semitones can be found with a few steps: 1. Let an be the frequency of a tone n, with a12 an octave above...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Valve Sound Trivia
Several subsets of enthusiasts consider that "pure" valve amplifiers shall not use anything except valves as active devices. Others in co...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Equal Temperament: Encyclopedia Ii - Equal Temperament - Explanation
The distance between each step and the next is aurally the same for any two adjacent steps; though, because steps form a geometric sequen...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Sound: Encyclopedia - Sound
Sound is vibration, as perceived by the sense of hearing. We usually hear vibrations that travel through air, but sound can also travel t...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Equal Temperament: Encyclopedia Ii - Equal Temperament - Non-12 Tet
Five and seven tone equal temperament, with 240 and 171 cent steps relatively, seem the most common outside of 12-tET. A Thai xylophone m...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Audible Differences
Engineers and musicians have long debated the question of valve sound versus transistor sound. Previous attempts to measure this differen...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Sound Amplification
String instrument - Through resonance. A vibrating string on its own makes only a very quiet sound, so string instruments are usually c...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Asymmetry
The very earliest amplifiers usually had single-ended topologies with the most basic type of vacuum tube, known as a triode. An audio amp...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Negative Feedback
Audio valves typically have only modest gain, and are more linear than bipolar transistors in the area of interest. This makes it possibl...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Signal Source Limitations
The major limitation was that although it was possible to make good recordings and vinyl pressings, very few cartridges of the time were ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Valve Sound From Transistor Amplifiers
Some engineers have been successful in developing transistor amplifiers that produce a sound quality very similar to the tube sound. Usua...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Explanation
The first audio amplifiers were, of neccessity, valve amplifiers since the transistor had not been invented. In more modern times, transi...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Device Characteristics And Distortion
There has been considerable debate over the characteristics of valves versus bipolar junction transistors. Some have argued that the quad...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Intentional Distortion
Valve sound - Tubes. Tubes (or valves) are often still used to impart an audibly pleasant distortion characteristic to solid state ampl...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Power Supplies
Tube amplifiers usually use unregulated power supplies. This was originally due to the high cost associated with high-quality high-voltag...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Contact Points Along The String
In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point half way between the end of the fingerboard an...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Harmonic Series Music: Encyclopedia Ii - Harmonic Series Music - Timbre Of Musical Instruments
The relative amplitudes of the various harmonics primarily determine the timbre of different instruments and sounds, though formants also...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Harmonic Series Music: Encyclopedia Ii - Harmonic Series Music - Register And Special Effects Of Musical Instruments
In wind instruments, which produce sounds with a resonating air column, the lowest possible note is the fundamental resonance of the enti...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Contact Points Along The String
In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point half way between the end of the fingerboard an...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Harmonic Series Music: Encyclopedia Ii - Harmonic Series Music - Harmonics And Tuning
If the first 15 harmonics are transposed into the span of one octave, they approximate some of the notes in what the West has adopted as ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Harmonic Series Music: Encyclopedia Ii - Harmonic Series Music - Terminology
Harmonic vs. partial. Harmonics are often called partials. In some contexts, "partial" may refer to an overtone that is not an integer mu...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Multiphonic: Encyclopedia Ii - Multiphonic - How Multiphonics Work
In general, when playing a wind instrument, the tone that comes out consists of the fundamental—the pitch usually identified as the not...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Mathematics Of Musical Scales: Encyclopedia Ii - Mathematics Of Musical Scales - Just Intonation
If we take the ratios constituting a scale in just intonation, there will be a largest prime number to be found among their prime factori...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Multiphonic: Encyclopedia Ii - Multiphonic - Use In Literature
The first real use of multiphonics in literature are of the brass "horn chord" style. Carl Maria von Weber used this technique in his hor...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Power Supplies
Tube amplifiers usually use unregulated power supplies. This was originally due to the high cost associated with high quality high voltag...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - String Instrument: Encyclopedia Ii - String Instrument - Through Resonance
A vibrating string on its own makes only a very quiet sound, so string instruments are usually constructed in such a way that this sound ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Asymmetry
Early amplifiers were of necessity valve amplifiers since the transistor did not become common in consumer amplifiers until the late 1960...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Negative Feedback
Audio valves typically have only modest gain, and are more linear than bipolar transistors in the area of interest. This makes it possibl...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Vibrating String: Encyclopedia Ii - Vibrating String - Frequency Of The Wave
Once we know the speed of propagation, it is almost immediate to find the frequency of the sound produced by the string. In fact we know ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Device Characteristics
There has been considerable debate over the characteristics of valves vs. bipolar junction transistors. Some have argued that the quadrat...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Valve Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Valve Sound - Bandwidth
A significant aspect of the valve sound is that early valve amplifiers often had only limited bandwidth, in part due to passive component...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Sound - Attributes Of Sound
The characteristics of sound are frequency, wavelength, amplitude and velocity. Sound - Frequency and wavelength. The frequency is the ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - List Of Cycles: Encyclopedia Ii - List Of Cycles - Art And Recreational Cycles
Video game List of cycles - Music and rhythm cycles. Interval cycle - Physics of music - Rhythm - Song cycle ... See also:List of cyc...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Sound - Types Of Sounds
Noises are irregular and disordered vibrations including all possible frequencies. Their wave diagram does not repeat in time. Noise is a...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Sound: Encyclopedia Ii - Sound - Perception Of Sound
The frequency range of sound audible to humans is approximately between 20 and 20,000 Hz. This range varies by individual and genera...   » Read the article