I don't have the book with me, but if you look at the "Harmonic 1" column,
those are the true pitches (as printed in Howe's "Electronic Music
Synthesis"). Theoretically I should be able to provide the first one and
have it accurately calculate down all of the other equal-tempered pitches;
every thirteenth cell being exactly double the first cell, etc.
The book claims that each semitone in ET has a frequency that is the
"twelfth root of two" higher than the one before it. That creates the
exponential pitch response that the ear hears. Each semitone has a frequency
that is 100 'cents' greater than the one before it.
It's not necessary to have that auto-calculate, I guess, but it makes for a
more elegant spreadsheet when you can input one number (in this case the
fundamental of the lowest tone) and have the rest of the sheet fill itself
in. Tends to cut down on human error, too.
-----Original Message-----
From:
Aardvark1@... [mailto:
Aardvark1@...]
Sent:Wednesday, 19 April, 2000 11:01 AM
To:
motm@egroups.comSubject:Re: [motm] "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
In a message dated 4/19/00 9:58:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
ken.tkacs@... writes:
<< (Hmm, couldn't get that 'twelfth root of 2' thing to work properly. Maybe
that's not the right calculation for successive equal tempered pitches...
that's what my Handel book 'Listening' said it was, though. I went ahead
and
plugged in true values for the first octave manually, and then duplicated
them upward...very inelegant though.) >>
Hmmm.... sounds like a math challange!!! Since you've provided a speadsheet
with all the answers maybe I can tweak the calculation... Which column(s)
are
you taking the 12th root of 2of ? Can you send the calculation the way it is
written in the book?
I really like the frequency counter idea!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your high school sweetheart-where is he now? With 4.4 million alumni
already registered at Classmates.com, there's a good chance you'll
find her here. Visit your online high school class reunion at:
http://click.egroups.com/1/3139/3/_/529958/_/956156485/------------------------------------------------------------------------