Audio frequency

[Daniel Sobota]

This is a very interesting topic that I don’t see many musicians talking about, so I would love to see Papa G’s and Syn’s thoughts on this.
Pretty much, the most commonly used audio frequency in music is around 440 hZ. But actually, it was scientifically proven that the most soothing frequency for human ear is 432 hZ. That frequency is able to bring humans into a state of meditation. Not only that, but it’s a frequency that classical composers used while composing their material.
So why did the 440 hZ frequency become the commonly used one instead of the 432 hZ one? There are theories that Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi general, started using 440 hZ frequency as a tool of manipulating people into thinking a certain way he desired. Because apparently, the 440 hZ frequency is sharper on the ear and makes people lose focus. This is just a conspiracy theory, but isn’t it interesting that we use 440 hZ over 432 hZ?
I always wanted to get an opinion on this from professional musicians, because being in the studio daily, they must notice the difference.

 

[Ed Seith]

It really wasn’t “scientifically proven.” Someone did some math that showed 432 was more “mathematically accurate,” but it was settled at 440 by a number of decidedly non-Nazi musical standards groups well before that era. It took a while to become globally accepted, but there’s nothing Nazi about it. That’s just some X-Files (or FRINGE for you younger folks) nonsense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A440_(pitch_standard)
“Before standardization on 440 Hz, many countries and organizations followed the French standard since the 1860s of 435 Hz, which had also been the Austrian government’s 1885 recommendation.[1] Johann Heinrich Scheibler recommended A440 as a standard in 1834 after inventing the “tonometer” to measure pitch,[2] and it was approved by the German Natural History Society the same year.[3]
The American music industry reached an informal standard of 440 Hz in 1926, and some began using it in instrument manufacturing.
In 1936 the American Standards Association recommended that the A above middle C be tuned to 440 Hz.[4] This standard was taken up by the International Organization for Standardization in 1955 (reaffirmed by them in 1975) as ISO 16.[5]”
With a good professional tuner, you can experiment with A432 yourself, and see if you can tell the difference. To most people, it just sounds “off” but they’re not sure why. Before digital recording and manipulation, many popular and rock albums had songs in an off pitch because after it was recorded, the producer (or the band) wanted tempo faster or slower, and so the tape was sped up or slowed down, affecting the pitch. For an easy example, try playing the intro to Metallica’s Fade to Black from Ride the Lightning on a perfectly tuned clean guitar – it’s noticeably off, because they wanted the verses slower than recorded.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

I think since we’re so used to the 440 hZ frequency, of course that every other frequency sounds off. It’s basically the same with an alphabet. We’re used to alphabet starting with an “A”, nobody learns an alphabet starting with a “Z”. It’s also interesting how both the frequency and the alphabet rules were created in Western society.

 

[Ed Seith]

There was a conspiracy thingie going around for a while that 432Hz was “best” because it somehow worked more magicaler mathematically. It was one of those things that, if you never bothered to look any further into it, it REALLY seemed to make a TON of sense, and you’d really question it.
But it was one of those things like a Michael Moore movie, where the conclusion was the starting point, and the only data that was included was the stuff that supported that end, and LOTS of other real and actual facts are left out to tell that false narrative. A bunch of real facts adding up to a totally fabricated fiction.

 

[Alan Celis]

well, if you were to compare it to the frequency we frequently use, yes it sounds off. Like for example a guitar tuned to 432 playing with other musicians tuned to 440
but if you just hear it like that, it doesnt sound off at all, since everything will be relatively tuned to that pitch

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

The topic is very interesting. But that is also the problem. It has been marred with so so many conspiracy theories that to know exactly what happened, we need some good scholarly research. Though one thing comes out very strongly that, this was not done for “Musical” reasons, which is unfortunate. It will take time and effort. But being a maths guy myself, I will be really interested to see the universal tuning changed back to 432. at least it is more related to other frequencies in common use like 512,256 than 440.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

*more common to sense…not in common use.

 

[Daniel Sobota]

To be honest, I’m more interested in 432 hZ frequency than I am in the whole 440 hZ conspiracy theory. As I said, classical composers composed in that tuning because that’s the natural vibration of human heart. There are some researches that suggest that the 432 frequency stimulates a part of the brain responsible for productivity and creativity.
Also, it’s worth mentioning the meaning of number 432 in nature and in our surroundings. Number 432 is a scale between the Earth, Sun and the Moon, as it’s the number of scale of the great pyramid in Egypt. A Buddhist temple in Borobudur counts a number of 432 “infinite Buddha’s”, and we can see the same correlation in Stonehenge and other ancient artifacts and buildings. And the famous Stradivarius violin is tuned perfectly in the 432 tuning.
I think the 432 hZ frequency is probably beyond our grasp of understanding at this point, because it’s esoteric and we’re so used to the 440 one. Frequency is a learning mechanism, and the whole modern world was built on 440 hZ.

 

[Tory Capman]

Very interesting concept!

 

[Daniel Sobota]

Here’s more about what I was talking about. https://sites.google.com/site/432octaves/

 

[Noah Berends]

This actually really caught my attention recently and I’ve been messing around with it a bit. I do think it has an interesting and unique sound to it, and I found out recently that one of my favorite metal bands (Oceans Ate Alaska) records all of their music in 432 hz, I thought something always sounded different about their sound but I couldn’t quite place it. But aside from that, I tuned my guitar to 432 hz last night and stuff sounded different, but not in a bad way necessarily. Some chords definitely did sound like they had a fuller tone to them.
I also found this online last night, but I’ve long since lost the webpage so I can’t remember who said it, but I kept the quote.
“…the reason a 432 Hz tuning sounds better than 440 is due to how sound waves harmonize. Scientifically, a perfect harmonization would occur at 430.54 Hz, however this is difficult to tune instruments to.”
I think better is up to subjective opinion, but I think 432 hz is definitely another creative outlet for music makers to have a unique sound. I also wonder if A7X considered recording The Stage in 432 hz, as it would have thematically fit with the rest of the album.

 

[Filip Tomiša]

I think 432 sounds better but I don’t believe that it can heal you or some shit like that whatever they say.

 

[Rod Azeite]

I find it so interesting to hear all of these and I wish I had the time and dedication to test some of it out but o my untrained ear I have pretty much the same opinion or standing point as Filip

 

[idssdi]

It’s funny that Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt used 432 Hz sometimes. I do have to say that it doesn’t really matter to me that much whether notes are played at 432 Hz or 440 Hz. You should do whatever feels good to you. And the whole 432 Hz is the natural vibration of the heart is a whole load of nonsense. That literally means that the heart would vibrate 432 times per second which as far as I know would actually kill you.

 

[Noah Berends]

Yeah. I don’t believe in the whole natural voodoo of 432 hz, but it does open up a new sound without drastically altering anything. The hardest thing is finding a good tuner that supports 432 hz, lol.