PLAYBACK AT 432HZ

[HERCULES1X]

To ROCKBOX Team

Recently I was reading up on musical pitches and learned that music is tuned to a 440Hz pitch, which has a negative effect on the listener.

Relatively recently audio players have been created to pitch down music to 432Hz for not only better listening, but to remove the negative aspect of up pitching music to 440Hz.

Is it possible to incorporate the playback function of Rockbox to 432Hz so that all music plays at this pitch?

I have researched the issue and found that in order to correct this problem that effects all music, it would require re-recording all music to the 432Hz pitch, which would be a nightmare for anyone with a sizable music collection, but it is easy for a audio player to correct that problem on the fly.

Just wondering if that can be done with your product

Thanks

[wodz]

My personal advice is to stop reading bullshit about earth own frequency and such supporting 432 Hz pitch. Historically there were different tunes used for instruments and usually the reason for change was either technical (downtune for some choral music for example) or purely subjective.

Anyway you can change pitch with or without affecting time in rockbox:
https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-ipodvideo/rockbox-buildch4.html#x6-630004.3.3

[ulmutul]

It's not possible for Rockbox to pitch all your music to 432 Hz in an easy way, because you have to analyze your music first:

* concert pitch in the baroque period was usually much lower than today; baroque orchestras which play historic instruments (respectively replicas) play at a 415
Hz pitch.
* in the following epoche concert pitch rose; "historic" orchestras playing classical (Viennese Classic) usually play at 430 Hz pitch.
* historic romantic music is often played at 435 or 438 Hz. 440Hz or 430Hz is possible, but less common.
* most modern orchestras play at a higher pitch, somewhere between 442 and 445 Hz.
* Recordings containing (historic) organs can be literally anywhere in pitch. Recordings of the same organ can be different because the pitch changes because of temperature or other climatic reasons. The same applies for any other instrument that can't be easily tuned.
* many recent rock bands play at 415 Hz pitch (downtuned one semitone)
* it was a common practice in the time of analog tape recorders to speed up/slow down any kind of popular music, which of course affects the pitch in one or the other direction

Do you intend to listen to everything at 432 Hz, i.e. pitching a music piece in the key of g (correspond to 392 Hz) up to 432 Hz?

[HERCULES1X]

My personal advice is to stop reading bullshit about earth own frequency and such supporting 432 Hz pitch. Historically there were different tunes used for instruments and usually the reason for change was either technical (downtune for some choral music for example) or purely subjective.


Anyway you can change pitch with or without affecting time in rockbox:
https://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-ipodvideo/rockbox-buildch4.html#x6-630004.3.3

I am only keeping what may be usable in your comment.... but thank you for it 

[ulmutul]

May I ask why you want to listen to "detuned" music? Except for playing along with a detuned instrument?

[HERCULES1X]

A detuned instrument has been wrongly tuned to 440Hz. The correct tuning is 432Hz, which was and has always been the correct frequency.

Sadly 440Hz causes discourse within the music and because all music has been tuned to it, people have become used to hearing this discourse and can not discern it, because they are accustomed to it.

When they start listening to music in the correct 432Hz they report a harmony that comes with it. Instruments blend together better and the vocalist will report a better ability to sing with the music without having to strain to keep with the "out of tune" music.

Those who deal with CLASSICAL MUSIC have known of this for years and make sure music is correctly tuned to the particular theatre/opera house/auditorium the music is played in as those with musical expertise can tell the disharmony that will ensue.

The off comment I received about this tuning being "bullshit" or that I am looking/listening/reading about EARTH FREQUENCIES came from someone who sadly does not understand music/frequencies/harmonies/vocals and the science behind how they must all be tuned to work compatibly together.

[saratoga]

A detuned instrument has been wrongly tuned to 440Hz. The correct tuning is 432Hz, which was and has always been the correct frequency.

This is a pretty significant misconception.  There is no "correct" frequency, the choice is arbitrary, and standard for pitch were selected to allow sheet music to be played similarly by different instruments and performers. 

The off comment I received about this tuning being "bullshit"

Tuning isn't bullshit, but whatever you were reading is.  If you just go and adjust the pitch of everything by 1.8%, you're not going to achieve what you are hoping. 

[gomezz]

For anyone wanting some background on this here is an article with comments which seems to cover the ground (something which the OP should have provided)

https://ask.audio/articles/music-theory-432-hz-tuning-separating-fact-from-fiction

[Bilgus]

Interesting article, thanks I was unaware people though 432 Hz was special.

That being said I'm not sure why the OP should have provided it
he has no requirement to convince anyone else as it is his belief
and that runs counter to his belief as well lol.

[gomezz]

If the OP is asking for a new feature then surely it helps their case to provide some justification?

[ulmutul]

The correct tuning is 432Hz [...]
[Classical Musicians] make sure music is correctly tuned to the particular theatre/opera house/auditorium the music is played in [...]

You misconceive the concept of 'tuning'. If you tune your instrument, you change the ratio of fundamental frequency to the formants (fixed frequencies defined by the physical dimensions, material and construction of the instrument). You may get a better sound with a apecific instrument (especially if you can tune away a wolf tone), but most modern instruments are constructed to sound best if tuned to 440 Hz.

If you pitch already recorded music, you cannot change the ratio of fundamental/overtones or sound/room frequency etc., so better sounding/blending/whatsoever will just not happen.

If you nevertheless claim "Hey, it DOES sound better at 432 Hz!" then most likely the resonat frequencies of your headphone interfere with your music and you should consider buying better ones.

Those who deal with CLASSICAL MUSIC have known of this for years [...]

I've never heard of any serious classical musician who favours 432 Hz tuning (neither contemporary nor historic).

P.S.:
If by chance anyone who is into this "8Hz Earth Tone"-thing read this post:
DON'T THOUGHTLESSLY PITCH TO 432 HZ, or you will severely RISK YOUR HEALTH!

I just read several 432 HZ internet pages, and all these guys inconsiderately assume that all music is written in the key of C.
But for example guitar music ist most often written in the key of G, E or A. However the Note G4 tuned at 432Hz is 4% off from being a perfect harmonic, while it IS perfect if tuned to 440Hz!

Things get much worse in the key of E: tuned to 440Hz E4 is 8.6% off (ouch!), but tuned to 432 Hz E4 is a tremendous 19.6% away from being "in sync" with the earth tone. HEADACHE GUARANTEED!

The key of A seems a sure thing for 432Hz at first glance; but 440Hz is also a perfect harmonic of 8Hz. Now have in mind that the second prominent note after the root note is the dominant, which is the note E - again 440Hz is the clear winner.

[__builtin]

The "432 Hz is the voice of God" camp doesn't seem to understand the rather arbitrary nature of audio frequencies. Part of the myth is that 432 Hz gives some nice integer frequencies that A440 doesn't--and indeed it does--but this totally ignores the origin of the hertz.
A hertz is defined as 1 oscillation/second, which seems pretty logical, but keep in mind the completely arbitrary definition of the second as (originally) 1/86400 of a day, and now (with the newly revised SI) by "taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s^−1." There's definitely nothing "natural" about that.
By insisting on A432 instead of A440, you're essentially trading one arbitrary frequency for an equally arbitrary frequency--pretty pointless.