Why is a 440 tuning standard

The author does an amazing job of looking at the argument with an objective and unbiased view, and goes into great depth about the history of Hz and its supposed advantages over You can decide for yourself which tuning sounds better to your ears! This video also gives a good, unbiased argument for listening to the same piece in different frequencies:. I, for one, really enjoy the way that Hz sounds to my ears. Learn the basics of digital audio and how a computer handles sound, from audio sample rate to bit depth.

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In Episode 3 of 'Are You Listening? Get top stories of the week and special discount offers right in your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time. Shop Deals. Never Miss an Article! A brief history of tuning standards Over the past few centuries, the tones that have made up western classical music have fluctuated considerably. The rise of Hz Many musicians and non-musicians alike vehemently oppose the industry standard of Hz as a reference for tuning.

If you look down the right paths, it becomes clear that governments and various security apparatuses have used music to control us using music. If musical performances were to sound the same the world over, some standardization was required. As early as , the Music Commission of the Italian Government declared that all instruments and orchestras should use a tuning fork that vibrated at Hz, which was different from the original standard of Hz and the competing Hz used in France.

In , the American Federation of Musicians endorsed the Italians, followed by a further push for Hz in the s. In , a worldwide agreement was signed. This frequency became the standard ISO reference for tuning all musical instruments based on the chromatic scale, the one most often used for music in the West.

All the other notes are tuned in standard mathematical ratios leading to and from Hz. This tone standard is now universally accepted, which is why a piano in Toronto sounds exactly the same as a piano in China. Weirdly, no one can say for sure why this frequency was chosen in the first place.

In fact, there those among us who vehemently disagree with this standard. They point to how this pitch can be connected to everything from nautilus shells to the works of the ancients, including the construction of the Great Pyramid. It just feels better. This is what sounds like A4 by modern standards. In other words, notes with a lower pitch have a lower frequency measured in Hz , while higher notes have a higher frequency.

Put simply, Hz is a specific pitch that we can classify as one version of the note A4. By setting A4 at Hz rather than Hz, every other note must be shifted down from accordingly for proper tuning, so B4 drops from If Hz has been the standard for well over half a century, why do some people swear by Hz including Verdi, supposedly?

As mentioned earlier, musicians across time preferred to tune their instruments in various ways for intuitive, practical, mathematical, and even spiritual reasons. Ultimately, composers and producers are concerned with what sounds best.

Once again, this is a matter of personal preference, though the untrained ear might not even notice much of a difference. Our experiences inform our likes and dislikes. That said, for physiological reasons, you might simply resonate more with Hz music. Distinguishing between and Hz can be challenging without hearing some examples firsthand. Fortunately, telling the two apart and trying them out yourself is easier now than ever before with the help of online resources and digital audio workstations DAWs.

In this video by Paul Davids, you can hear a back-to-back rendition of "Ode to Joy," first played in standard Hz tuning and then in Hz he does the same for a few other songs, too. Hearing the same piece played back to back in two different tunings is somewhat jarring at first. The flattened tonality of the Hz rendition might sound off-putting initially, but once your ear adjusts, the song basically sounds just as you would expect it to.

Similarly, if you then hop back to the Hz version, the sharpness might come off as unpleasant for a little while before you settle back in.

This contrast clearly expresses the difference between these two tuning standards, and also suggests something about the way we perceive information. Unless you've got a great ear, odds are you'll get at least one wrong example fatigue, anyone? The "cheat," of course, is that the flatter version of a given example is tuned to Hz while the sharper version is tuned to Hz. So, do the above examples prove that there's no significant difference between these tuning standards? Does it indicate that it's all just arbitrary?

Not exactly. After hearing these various back-to-back samples, most people can identify differences based on the way they're tuned. Once a standard is set, however, most of us won't intrinsically notice much of a real difference, let alone accept one as preferable to the other. Context and contrast uncover the subtle but real differences between them. While the jury is out on many of these assertions, there are some real advantages to trying out various tunings, such as Hz.

Even if the difference isn't noticeable to the average listener, your songs might carry a rare flavor by fleeing from the pack in this way you're bound to confuse anyone trying to cover your song without prior knowledge of the difference in tuning, too. Additionally, exploring different tuning standards can help you discover new things about tonality and spark your creative impulses.

You might even overcome a case of writer's block by re-tuning different instruments or messing around with different frequencies for a change. Lastly, if you truly believe that the resonance of Hz induces positive physical and emotional sensations regardless of what data suggests , then listening to and creating music in this tuning standard might bring you comfort essentially a placebo effect.

Design: Cross-over pilot study. Setting: A room dedicated to listening to music, in an Italian city. Interventions: Two sessions of music listening on different days.