Acoustic beats

235

03:47:14

To start: toggle both switches to the outer position.

A little audio phenomenon just to mix things up. When 2 sine waves of equal amplitude and close frequency superimpose the resulting wave experiences 'beats' where the amplitude changes as a sine function with frequency equal to the difference between the original frequencies.

Here the inputs are a 50Hz and 60Hz wave with almost equal amplitudes, and the resulting 55Hz has a 10Hz beat envelope.

If you've ever tuned an instrument this is what you're hearing when the notes are extremely close, e.g. a 439Hz note and a 440Hz note played together will fade in and out of full volume twice a second (since there are 2 amplitude peaks in each beat period).

published 11 years ago

Sine_eyed

11 years ago

Ah ha! And so the mystery is revealed. I've always tuned my guitars by ear, never really liked the digital tuners because I feel it separates player from instrument. It is exactly this phenomenon I listen for when tuning by ear. The closer the two notes are, the slower the oscillation and when it zeros out- it's in tune. Thanks @Mamish, for showing me the science behind the sound.. X^)

Secuture

11 years ago

oh yes a kind of wah wah effect. i also tune my ol'strat mainly exhibiting this effect. it actually can also be helpfull when u use simple "A string tuner" to match frequencies

Mamish

11 years ago

Mm I've always tuned guitars this way, it makes it so easy to get the notes closer even though the pitch sounds almost identical. The EC community has more guitar players than I expected.

Secuture

11 years ago

better than guitar is only live performance using commodore 64 with "doom death SID" modiffication installed XD ....c64 forever !!!

Sine_eyed

11 years ago

Yeah, we're down one absent kurtz. I've been meaning to getting around to posting a clip over at ECG+...

Sine_eyed

11 years ago

Yeah, we're down one absent kurtz. I've been meaning to getting around to posting a clip over at ECG+...

Sine_eyed

11 years ago

lol hey Secu, I haven't found the "doom death SID" yet, but you're talking about something like this?... Metallica - Nothing Else Matters (C64 SID Tune by…: http://youtu.be/o2JF5QAarks

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