Timbre: why different instruments playing the same tone sound different

Published on May 10, 2014 What Music Really İs·4 videos

Thought this was pretty cool. Not a synth demo but obviously applicable. Filing this one in the Synth Tutorials channel.

"'The same tone' is not the same at all. We usually think of a tone as the frequency of one sound: the fundamental frequency common to all instruments exemplified here, but every tone is in fact a complex entity - a chord if you will - consisting of many other simple tones.

These simple tones are reiterations of the same energy, on different levels. They are harmonically related to each other (do not confuse true harmony with the simultaneous playing of equal tempered tones). The simple mathematical law governing the harmonic series is depicted here: the fundamental frequency at 128 Hz is harmonic 1, or simply the fundamental. The next harmonic oscillates exactly 2 times faster at 256 Hz; harmonic 3 precisely 3 times giving 384 Hz, and so on.

This progression 1 2 3 4 5 ... generating aurally unequal tones continues to infinity. Physically, a harmonically rich timbre like that of the sitar or accordion goes beyond the 120th harmonic - visible on the graphic. Musically, the Harmonic Series is nature's perfect tuning system, generating three-dimensional spiraling vortexes having perfectly consonant harmonies and evolving fractal beatings (as opposed to the stiff two-dimensional sound waves of equal temperament, spinning in closed circles with their constant and annoying beatings and phaser-like dissonances).

Many tunings based on rational numbers like Just Intonation and the tuning systems of different ethnic and indigenous cultures are in true harmonic alignment with the nature of sounds. True harmonic music is the miniature of energy laws throughout the Universe."