Solfeggio frequencies

[oblioblioblio]

we could do a test.

make a track with the certain hz and let people comment of what triggers them. See if it's correct or not ?

maybe i'm too narrow minded with this one.

there are too many variables to learn anything from a test like that. what happens if the track with one frequency is one way, and the track with another frequency is in a different direction. What happens if a listener has preconceived ideas about the frequency?

You can try to eliminate all the variables but then you end up with a cold empty room, some headphone and a double blind study. And you're not gonna learn sh!t all from that.


This frequency stuff is really important. Especially in techno, where we can do what the fck we like with timbre, with maths, with blah blah blah. And especially in a day and age where everything is forcefed... we assume that 12tET is all perfect and fine. We assume that we should pair a dominant chord with a reolved perffect whatever.

I think you have to try to start from the basics. Do I like this note more than another one? What is the basis behind these notes? The Greeks understood pitch and music. Many other ancient cultures understood these significant things.

Personally I feel like just tuning things by ear, for now. 90% of my decisions about pitch are inside interactions of synthesis, and it can be quite obvious what pitch is 'right', becuase everything jumps out.

But I'm going to be as sensitive as I can be to the significance of tuning. It's interesting as fck.

[oblioblioblio]

ok hippy hat on.

417hz lines up very closely with the oscillation frequency of the moon (at 210.42 Hz). Which was calculated using lots of octave multiplications so the lunar month gets multiplied by 2 many many times until it turns from a super slow LFO into an audio rate frequency.

This also lines up with many ancient beliefs which associate the moon with change (noted in original post).

That's significant to me. I'd trust the scientific calculation of lunar frequency over the solfeggio one.


Similar (ish), deal with earth year frequency at 136.1, which can be multiplied by 2 will you get close to the 'magic' frequency of 528 (this one is a bit out, earth year octave multiple is at 544.4) .

Anyways this frequency was used by Ancient(ish) Indians, at their root note. This frequency is quite 'pure', as all our understanding of time (and space) is derived from the rotation around the sun. I think atomic energy is somehow related to this as well?



I think there are some other ones that line up, both in terms of their frequency and their supposed interactions?

http://www.planetware.de/octave/cosmic-octave.html

[oblioblioblio]

I was once quite curious about ancient medicines and cultures, like Indian Chakras. (well, I still am, but I guess sometimes more cautious these days)

I think a lot of it gets bundled in with New Age thinking, but I think there is a logical relationship behind it all. Like, I would say that the Chakra system can be tied in modern understanding of medicine, and that these supposed 'portals' represent significant biological pathways, for example the pineal gland.


As far as music goes, I think there is something significant about using your own intuition and instinct, and letting a piece of music shape itself by using frequencies which relate within the context of the piece. But I think the universe is made up of many significant connections and I'd rather make meaningful music than meaningless music.

[steevio]

Why would that be a strange thing? Going by what you said, the are related by the harmonic series of a bass note. The low frequency of a bass note (say 55hz for argument sake) means every harmonic is only separated by a mere 55hz, so the 25th, 26th and 29th wouldnt even be enough to separate them into chromatic intervals, it makes sense they'd sound weird played as individual notes to me. As a chord it would work in a harmonic series way with 55hz (well 55hz in this point)
Or am I missing something?

i never said it was strange, but it reveals that there is an almost infinite amount of chords and ways to express yourself musically which are almost never investigated because we limit ourselves with the system of equal temperament, which only came about to make it easier to play music on keyboards.
it only takes a brief glance at the harmonic series to see that the western major scale is based on it the first few octaves, if we start with C, then the 4th,5th,and 6th harmonic are C, E and G respectively, a major chord, but the 7th harmonic is a very flat A# (31 cents) and is not used in 12 tet, its surely limiting to take something which is naturally mathematically divergent, and make it linear.

i'm currently working with the harmonic series starting with C = 16.5 Hz and the 25th 26th and 29th harmonic approximate to 12tet intervals, but are way out of tune with them. they are G#4 -27cents, G#4 +41 cents, A#4 +30 cents. you could never make a chord out of those frequencies within the 12tet system, yet still it exists as a perfectly usable way of expressing yourself musically, and thats just the tip of the iceberg.

you can make hundreds of different triad chords, and thousands of quadriad chords out of combinations of the first 32 harmonics in any key, where with the 12 tet system youre stuck with a relative handful of chords which are colourations of the common major and minor triads, and any which stray into dissonance are usually required to resolve in a musical piece.

ive found that working harmonically removes this need for resolution, cadence etc. which to me is what makes music too 'normal' or maybe that should read 'familar'. while theres nothing wrong with familiarity, i just dont want that all the time.
harmonic chords are never truly dissonant, but they might sound it to our western indoctrinated ears, yet it doesnt take too long to readjust your ears, it takes even less time in the spaced out head spaces of the techno dancefloor.

[AK]

Ive always thought dissonance to be subjective anyway. Its just a word to me. 12tet itself could be referred to as dissonant in the essence of the word. Its not in tune like just intonation and indeed, there are ways in which you can hear buzzing or beating noises during harmonies in equal temperament that you dont get with just intervals.

The harmonic series is a naturally occuring thing and just intonation being based on those mathematical ratios means - to me, it's a naturally pure system of tuning. Ive read where equal temperament enthusiasts argue the value of such purity, claiming that the ear cannot differentiate at such microtonal levels. Im sure such arguments kinda miss the point.

Anyway, the kind of freedom you have there with tuning is not that easy to accomplish with the majority of synths, they are already hardwired equal temperament units. Sure you can change the master tune but the math behind the intervals obviously remain the same. Theres a number of methods I could think of to get pure tuning in software but I dont wish to delve back into that world. I dont know whether its to do with you having a modular or not but seems like the rest of us are stuck with our hardwired 12tet.

[lowpassfellow]

ok hippy hat on.

i'm wearing that hat now as well....

a few years ago, i watched a documentary called "What The Bleep Do We Know." in the documentary, they interviewed a Japanese researcher by the name of Dr. Masaru Emoto, who discovered some interesting things while working with water crystals. It seemed that when negative feelings, words and more importantly for this forum... music, was exposed to the crystals, the crystals would form erratically in a chaotic sort of way. however, when positive energy, feelings and music was exposed/directed to the crystals, they would form perfectly and not suffer from any chaotic behavior.

when Dr. Emoto exposed heavy metal and rock music to the forming water crystals, they resulted in these negative/chaotic formations. however, when he exposed the water crystals to Bach and "purer" forms of music (i recall he used Gregorian Chants as well) the crystals that formed were perfect and aligned.

some interesting facts, especially if you consider that we're made up of approximately 70% water.

link to the site: http://www.whatthebleep.com/crystals/

[AK]

Ive watched that before, been a while though. The whole thing about consciousness/matter/universe is not any suprise to me as all that exists is intrinsically related, so being amazed by cause and effect seems kinda weird when you think holistically.

Im currently reading a book which deals with the scientific theory of psychic phenomena. In essence it just offers some theory and factual physics as to why 'psi' (as its known) exists and again, it all comes down to a huge entaglement of universal interconnectivity and vibration.

Ultimately, the whole universe is conscious, our consciousness is part of it and its part of us. Its as if a singularity of consciousness needed to experience itself subjectively. Consciousness experiencing consciousness. Did you know that observation causes reaction at the atomic level. Particles only react when they are observed. Cause and effect, its at microcosm and macrocosm and its all vibration at the core.

[steevio]

Ive always thought dissonance to be subjective anyway. Its just a word to me. 12tet itself could be referred to as dissonant in the essence of the word. Its not in tune like just intonation and indeed, there are ways in which you can hear buzzing or beating noises during harmonies in equal temperament that you dont get with just intervals.

The harmonic series is a naturally occuring thing and just intonation being based on those mathematical ratios means - to me, it's a naturally pure system of tuning. Ive read where equal temperament enthusiasts argue the value of such purity, claiming that the ear cannot differentiate at such microtonal levels. Im sure such arguments kinda miss the point.

Anyway, the kind of freedom you have there with tuning is not that easy to accomplish with the majority of synths, they are already hardwired equal temperament units. Sure you can change the master tune but the math behind the intervals obviously remain the same. Theres a number of methods I could think of to get pure tuning in software but I dont wish to delve back into that world. I dont know whether its to do with you having a modular or not but seems like the rest of us are stuck with our hardwired 12tet.

i managed for years using my Nord 3, it has harmonic tuning of the second oscillator, which gives you much better FM, so it was easy to make tunes by simply modulating the Osc2, multitimbrally. pretty much everything i've recorded in the last 8 years was done that way.
also the Virus C has a pure tuning option.

also your 12tet isnt hardwired, it is only if you use a keyboard or note sequencer to make your music, individual oscillators can usually be tuned independantly, so theres nothing to stop anyone from working harmonically, its simply about technique.
theres also nothing wrong with using 12 tet where it works in conjunction with harmonics, for instance theres nothing wrong with using it where it coincides with harmonics within say + or - 5 cents which is usually the limit where we can notice a difference.
so you can make a bass part out of notes from a sequencer as long as they fit in the scheme, for instance in key of C you could get away with using C D G on in one octave, and C, C#, D, G, A in the next, and if youre not too particular you could use B and E as well especially as passing notes.