Reading Time: 4 minutes April 14, 2017

GIUSEPPE VERDI … 435Hz, 432Hz, 256Hz

When using C4=256Hz as concert pitch A4 might NOT be 432Hz, but could result in A4 ranging between 428Hz and 430.5Hz, depending on the temperament. If you list the Pythagorean Temperament (and variants) as Just Intonation (5-limit), then the range would be extended to 432Hz and possibly even higher.

Using the “Scientific Pitch” as argumentation thus does NOT seem to be the “best evidence” to be put on the table, specially not with proper specifications about the used temperament.

DIAPASON NORMALE

A better validation for the claim though is that Verdi seems to have supported the French national pitch, the “Diapason Normal” of 435Hz. The Conservatory of Milan (Italy) has a letter written by Verdi in their collection (found by Maestro Roberto Gorini Falco, who’s daughter Liliana Gorini provided the image below):  

The images above unfortunately ain’t photocopies of the letter itself, but text as presented was provided by the Conservatory. I hope some day a proper photocopy of the actual letter itself will be made available.

If you (the reader) by any chance have a photocopy of the letter itself in your possession, then you would do me a great pleasure providing a copy. Below the translation of the text (online translation):

ORIGINAL Genova, 10 Febbraio 1884. “Fin da quando venne adottato in Francia il diapason normale, io consigliai venisse seguito l’esempio anche da noi; e domandai formalmente alle orchestre di diverse città d’Italia, fra le altre quella della Scala, di abbassare il corista (diapason) e di uniformarsi al normale francese. Se la Commissione musicale istituita dal nostro Governo crede, per esigenze matematiche, di ridurre le 870* vibrazioni del corista francese in 864*, la differenza è così piccola, quasi impercettibile all’orecchio, ch’io aderisco di buon grado. Sarebbe grave, gravissimo errore, adottare come viene da Roma proposto un diapason di 900* vibrazioni. Io pure sono d’opinione con lei che l’abbassamento del corista non toglie nulla alla sonorità ed al brio dell’esecuzione; ma dà al contrario qualche cosa di più nobile, di più pieno e maestoso che non potrebbero dare gli strilli di un corista troppo acuto. Per parte mia vorrei che un solo corista venisse adottato in tutto il mondo musicale. La lingua musicale è universale: perché dunque la nota che ha nome LA a Parigi o a Milano dovrebbe diventare un Si bemolle a Roma?”

TRANSLATION Genoa, 10 February, 1884. “Ever since the “Diapason Normal” was adopted in France, I advised we also follow it suits us; and formally asked the orchestras of several cities in Italy, among others of that the scale, to lower the chorister (pitch) and to conform with the French “Diapason Normal”. If the music commission established by our government believes, for mathematical requirements, to reduce the 870* vibrations of the French chorister to 864*, the difference is so small, almost imperceptible to the ear, I adhere willingly. It would be bad, a very bad mistake, to adopt a 900* tuning fork vibration as proposed in Rome. I, too, share the opinion that lowering the tuning-fork does not detract from the sonority and the execution panache; but on the contrary gives something nobler, more full and majestic which might make the screeches of a chorister less sharp. For my part I wish that one chorister were adopted throughout the musical world. The musical language is universal: why should a note that the name LA to Paris or Milan become a B flat in Rome? “

* 870 -8va = 435, 864 -8va = 432, 900 -8va = 450

Verdi seems to have supported the “Diapason Normal” of 435Hz and did not object against an even lower pitch of 432Hz. This makes Verdi so far the ONLY composer that has actually mentioned 432Hz (as far as proper historical evidence goes).

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According to the book “The Verdi-Boito Correspondence”Verdi is said to have written (Sant’Agata, 8 November 1885):

Dear Boito,
There is no doubt about it. The conclusion of your letter is perfect. Principal aim, the standard of concert pitch. Give in, if it cannot be avoided; but not without declaring openly, loudly, and publicly the error, from the scientific point of view, of the 870 vibrations. You are a clear and fluent speaker, and you will easily expound the truth. With the authority of our conservatories, it could surely be declared that we maintain the concert pitch of 864 vibrations because it is more correct; but this firmness could seem mere pique, a childishness that could almost lend itself to ridicule, and it would immediately be taken up by your transalpine brothers.
Conclusion: Give in, I repeat, if it cannot be avoided; and the standard, etc.
Write me from Vienna the result of it all, and with Peppina’s greetings I wish you a good journey and bid you farewell.
Yours, G. Verdi.

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You might wonder, what about other composers and musicians?

You might have heard other names mentioned along side Verdi, like Mozart or Bach, but also contemporary artists as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd and Prince … ? Well, if you like to know fact from fiction, I suggest you read the Roel’s World article “Myth: Mozart, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Prince … 432Hz artists?“

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Reading Time: 3 minutes March 24, 2016

432HZ MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

At present time there are only a relatively small number of instruments specially designed for Concert Pitch 432Hz. In this article I will share little bits of info and links about them.

! IMPORTANT NOTE: I do not represent the manufacturers and I do not guaranteeing the quality of those products. !
(It’s up to you to check it out yourself!)

! I do not always agree with the “432-stories” on their sites. ! 

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BORGANI 432 SAX

I will start this article with a rather unique instrument. There is at present time only one 432-designed saxophone world-wide. It was made for Enrico Marchioro by the Borgani Musical Instruments company in Italy. I am a saxophone player myself and naturally have a strong affinity with this topic in particular, so I wrote a full article about it on this blog. Continue reading that article …

An other article related to 432Hz saxophones is The 432Hz Saxophone Redesign Lobby.

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432HZ FLUTES

One of the first type of 432-tuned instruments that could be purchased ever since 432Hz gained popularity, were wooden and bamboo flutes. 

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432HZ HANG & STEEL TONGUE DRUMS

“Hang” and “Steel Tongue” drums are musical instruments from the idiophone class.  

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432HZ TIBETAN “SINGING” BOWLS

Information about Tibetan “Singing” Bowls at Wikipedia.

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Reading Time: 8 minutes November 2, 2015

WATCHING VIDEOS (AND AUDIO) REAL-TIME PITCHED-DOWN TO A4=432HZ

One of the questions that I receive from visiters of my blog is about videos and if there is a way to watch/listen to the videos pitched-down to 432Hz. The short answer to this question is “yes”. But, you will need to do a few things to make this happen. In this article I will explain how-to step by step. 

After you have implemented the setting changes as described in this blog article, all video and audio formats supported by the players will be playing with the lowered speed (and pitch).

IMPORTANT NOTE: keep in mind that the players mentioned in this article will not detect the Concert Pitch of the source. A video that uses another Concert Pitch then the standard 440Hz standard will be re-pitched with the same amount as if it was in 440Hz. The real-time auto-pitching instructions as mentioned in this blog article work for 440Hz pitched videos. You could use a different Concert Pitch as well, if you prefer, but you do have to do “the math” yourself for it.

The larger part of this article describes how to setup the VLC player (version 2.2.4 “Weatherwax”) to work with video at 432Hz. The reason why I prefer the VLC player above any other, is because it’s available for all platforms (Windows, OSX and Linux), it is very accurate and can be “setup” in different ways … and it’s freeware. So, everyone can use it!

Alternatively, other multi-format video players that can be used with Windows are the “Natural Grounding Player” and “Foobar 2000” (less accurate) as described later in the article.

If you were just looking for real-time auto-pitching music (audio only) players, perhaps you like to read this article at Roel’s World!

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VLC (VIDEOLAN) PLAYER

These instructions work for version 2.2.4 “Weatherwax”. Some visitors of my blog have mentioned having difficulties implementing these instructions with version 3 though.

I think the best freeware video player available for all platforms (Windows, OSX and Linux) is the VLC player. For this article I used VLC version 2.2.0 (Weatherwax). I do not know if all older versions have the required options and/or those settings can be found at the places as described in this article.  

STEP 1: INSTALL VLC

If you hadn’t already installed the VLC player, then go to http://www.videolan.org/vlc/, download and install VLC. 

STEP 2: CHANGE SETTINGS … 

After starting VLC, go to: Tools > Preferences > select All at “Show settings” (see image below on the right).

   

STEP 3 – DISABLE PITCH EQUALISATION:

Select Audio from the settings menu and un-select “enable time stretching” at the bottom right. The pitch should now raise and lower in relation to the speed.

STEP (4 METHOD 1) – CHANGE THE PLAYBACK SPEED (ALLWAYS RE-PITCHING – A4≈432HZ):

If you want to watch/listen ANY AND ALL videos/music files and stream urls pitched down from 440Hz to 432Hz, then this is the best setup.

The best way to get the most accurate result is to edit the VLC configuration file “vlcrc“. The config file is created separately for every user account on the computer you use (there is no global configuration file). This method was suggested to me by Thiago Haendel. This is where you most likely should be able to find the config file:

LINUX & UNIX:
home/%username%/.config/vlc/vlcrc (v0.9.0 and above)
/home/%username%/.vlc/vlcrc (v0.8 and older)

MAC OS X:
HOME/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc
HOME/Library/Preferences/VLC (v0.9 and older)

WINDOWS 95/98/ME: C:\Windows\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc
WINDOWS 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc
WINDOWS VISTA: C:\Users\%username%\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc
WINDOWS 7/8: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\vlc\vlcrc
WINDOWS 10: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\vlc\vlcrc

If you can not find the vlcrc file as listed above (for example because your operating system uses a different language), try locating it via the operating system file search for “vlcrc”.

Open the vlcrc file with a simple text editor (for example Notepad or Mousepad) and use the “Search” > “Find” option (Ctrl+F) to search for “Player Speed” (without the quotation marks). If you had not already changed the speed using method 3 (below), then you should find the following:

# Playback speed (float)
rate=1.000000

Now change rate=1.000000 to rate=0.981818

# Playback speed (float)
rate=0.981818

… and save the config file. Now you can listen and watch to video and audio files at A4≈431,999∞Hz.

STEP 4 (METHOD 2) – CHANGE THE PLAYBACK SPEED (PITCH IS SET BY SHORTCUT – A4≈432Hz):

If you do NOT want to watch/listen ANY AND ALL videos/music files and online streams pitched down from 440Hz to 432Hz – for example because part of your video/audio collection or online streams use another Concert Pitch then the standard 440Hz – then this is the best setup.

For this method you have to edit the application shortcut. If you use –rate attribute to the target / command line of the VLC player, the player will start-up with that Playback Speed set. Using this method will set A4≈431,999∞Hz 

The “advantage” of this method is that the –rate attribute will “overrule” any and all Playback Speed configuration changes applied to VLC (method 1 and 3).  

Note: Do keep in mind that when you start VLC by right-clicking an audio or video file, that the Playback Speed is set via the configuration settings (method 1 or 3). With other words, to use this method you have to start VLC with the shortcut and load the media files from the player or “drop” them into the playlist. 

You could for example make several different shortcuts, with various rates for various purposes. If you for example like to use the “Scientific Pitch” at C4=256Hz, you could add –rate=0.978496 to the Target/Command and save the shortcut under a different name. Or, if you would like to listen to the modern Classical concert pitch at A4=442Hz, you could add –rate=1.004545 to the Target/Command. And –rate=0.000000 would set the player to play at the original speed.

This is how to set it up for re-pitching 440Hz media to 432Hz:

WINDOWS: ..\Program Files\ ..\vlc.exe”–rate 0.981818      LINUX: /usr/bin/vlc –rate 0.981818 %U

 

STEP 4 (METHOD 3 – LESSER) – CHANGE THE PLAYBACK SPEED (A4≈431.4HZ):

If you do not feel comfortable working with computers and you do not like editing the VLC config file or Target/Command line, then there is a 3rd method you could use. IMPORTANT: This method is less accurate when it comes to changing the pitch. You will not be able to setup VLC to play perfectly pitched to 432Hz, but to approximately 431.4Hz. This is how this works:

Select Input/Codecs from the settings menu and scroll down on the right side to “Playback control” and set the “Playback speed” to 0,98. 

NOTE: The amount of speed change of 0,98 by the VLC player via the preferences menu is not as accurate as I would like it to be, VLC can only set the amount up to 2 digits behind the comma. 0,98 will set A4 to approximately 431.4Hz, a bit lower then 432Hz. 0,98 is as close as you can get with the standard VLC preferences. 

Press the button “Save” at the bottom-right to safe the changes and close the window. Restart VLC to activate the changes.

VLC + YOUTUBE

To be able to watch youtubes with VLC, we have to activate the “Web Interface”. This is how you do that:

• After starting VLC, go to: Tools > Preferences > select All at “Show settings”.
• Select “Main interfaces” under “Interface” from the settings menu and select “web” on the right side. 

Press the button “Save” at the bottom-right to safe the changes and close the window. Restart VLC to activate the changes.

Note: If you use Windows you might be prompted by you firewall (if you use one) to give access to the net. Don’t be alarmed, this is normal, each time you start VLC, the web server will be started in the background.

*YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS

The standard VLC installation does not include Youtube Playlist support. So, in order to listen to Youtube Playlists, you have to install a “Playlist Parser”. The Youtube Playlist parser can be downloaded from the official VideoLAN Website: http://addons.videolan.org/content/show.php/+Youtube+playlist?content=149909. On this website you can find the installation instructions as well.

WATCHING YOUTUBE VIDEOS WITH VLC

1. Copy the URL of the youtube video (for example: https://youtu.be/JHf33lh3k4A) or playlist* (must contain: playlist?list=). You can get the url by clicking the “Share” button under the youtube video.
2. Start VLC, press Ctrl+N (Media > Open Network Stream)
3. Paste the url then click on “Play” (or Alt+P then Enter)

… the youtube video / playlist* should start.

SUGGESTION: SAVE YOUR YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS AT YOUR COMPUTER!
If you like to listen to that playlist some other time again, then I suggest you save the playlist. This way you do not even have to start/use your browser. You can save the playlist by pressing Ctrl+Y (Media > Save Playlist to File).

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FOOBAR (WINDOWS APPLICATION) + YOUTUBE (AUDIO ONLY) AT A4=432HZ

For those who prefer using Foobar for watching and/or listening to Youtube videos: Foobar 2000 can be setup to deal with Youtube streams as well.

NOTE: Foobar is though less accurate then the VLC setup as mentioned in this article

The only “advantage” Foobar has in comparison with VLC is that you can install this application also onto a portable device, like for example a Flash Drive. Then you can play the music on any another PC/Laptop running Windows, without having to install the program on another PC/Laptop first. 

For Foobar installation instructions check this Roel’s World article! 

TURNING FOOBAR INTO A VIDEO PLAYER:

After the Foobar installation (including the SoundTouch plugin) you need to download the Youtube component for Foobar 2000 here: http://fy.3dyd.com/download/.  

You can choose from 3 different versions, a standard version and 2 preconfigured versions (detailed information can be found on the fv.3dvd.com site). The difference is in default component settings. Standalone variant configured to play best quality from the formats which foobar2000 can play out of the box and without problems. Variant preconf_audio configured to use wider set of formats which can be played without problems only using 3rd party plugins which it contains. Variant preconf_video also has needed DirectShow filers to be able to play video without need to install them in the system.

INSTALLATION STEPS:

1. Go to the Components page.
2. Click the “Install…” button and select the component archive, or simply drag it to the list.
3. Press “OK”, you will be prompted to restart foobar2000 in order to load the newly installed component.

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NATURAL GROUNDING PLAYER (WINDOWS APPLICATION)

The Natural Grounding player was created by Etienne Charland as tool to be used for Natural Grounding Meditation (“a fun and SIMPLE form of meditation that works especially well for men because it gets you in direct relation to female ‘shakti’ or ‘yin’ energy.”). 

Besides being useful for meditation, it can be used as well to listen to music and watch videos pitched to 432Hz and that’s why it deserves to be mentioned in this article as well.

This player does not only play videos, it can download, upscale, re-encode and convert Youtube videos (using a combination of AviSynth, ffmpeg and x264) as well. The “Powerliminals” Player allows playing 10, 20 or even 30 audios simultaneously at various speeds. It’s Audio Video Mixer allows changing file containers, merging audio/video streams from separate files, and joining multiple video files of same format without re-encoding. All operations are lossless. You can download the Natural Grounding Player here: 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/naturalgroundingplayer/files/

Read more about how to install and use this player at the Natural Grounding Player page at Github

Warning: when upgrading from an earlier version to version 1.4 the player will replace your existing database. To preserve your custom videos, mark them as “Personal” in the playlist and export them to a file. You’ll be able to re-import them after installing the 1.4 version. To preserve your existing video files, before upgrading, use “Playlists | Moves Files” to move all files to their default locations. Reed more about this here.

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Reading Time: 4 minutes December 2, 2014

432HZ: DAWs, VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS, PLUGINS, SOFTWARE TOOLS

In this blog article I will place various information about 432Hz virtual (software) instruments, plugins, packages and more, for various DAWs, as well as useful software tools.

• SCALA (tool for creating temperament presets that can be used with various software and hardware).
• MELODYNE (DAW and plugin for working with non-standard Concert Pitches and Temperaments).
• ABLETON LIVE (Info about how to setup this DAW for 432Hz music production).
• LOGIC PRO (Info about how to setup the midi instruments in this DAW for 432Hz music production).

SCALA – MICROTUNING

“Scala is a powerful software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non-Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale creation methods. Scala is ideal for the exploration of tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved. In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or music creation.“

With Scala you can create script and “dump” files that can be used to tune a large number of keyboards, synthesizers, virtual instruments and plugins to be able to use 432Hz tuning. This software could be hard to work with for those people who do not have much experience with micro-tonal music.

Source: http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/

MELODYNE – MICROTUNING

432-Tuning is more then just the change of the Concert Pitch (from 440Hz to 432Hz) but requires a change of Temperament as well (as explained in the article “432 Tuning: Basics”). Melodyne is perhaps the most “flexible” DAW when it comes to using temperaments other then the standard. Melodyne is available as DAW as well as editor (plugin) as well and is compatible with DAWs such as Avid Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase / Nuendo, Ableton Live, Sonar, Studio One and Digital Preformer.

“Melodyne is a software application for OS X or Windows with which you can edit audio in a more musical way than was ever thought possible. In Melodyne, you work with notes – and not with a meaningless wave form. You don’t just see where the music gets louder or quieter but also where notes begin and end and at what pitch they lie.

You can modify each note and thereby influence directly the intonation, phrasing and dynamics – and do this not only with vocals and monophonic instruments but with polyphonic instruments such as pianos and guitars as well.“

Source: http://www.celemony.com/en/melodyne/what-is-melodyne

The videos below provides information on how to use different Temperaments and Concert Pitches. They are not a turorials about 432-tuning in particular, but 432Hz as Concert Pitch is being mentioned in the 2nd video (03:46 – 04:00).

ABLETON LIVE

A “how to” video to setup Ableton Live for working with Concert Pitch 432Hz by Isaac Cotec (www.subaqueousmusic.com):

NOTE: the video on the left only explains how to change the concert pitch. In the video on the right it the (Pythagorean-based) “Scale of Fifths” is mentioned.

432 Essentials for Ableton Live

“If you have been wanting to dive into making music in 432 tuning or get your feet wet in micro tonal music then this is the pack for you.  This Ableton Live pack was created by Ableton Certified Trainer Isaac Cotec to give you easy access to making music in 432. The pack is full of custom instrument and an example Live Set.

There is also a PDF included in the pack that walks you through making music in 432. It goes through setting up live instruments and third party VST’s.

The Live Pack includes:

• 43 432 instruments
• 34 instruments in Scale of Fifths
• 1087 Samples!
• Instruments in easy to manipulate instrument racks
• Information on how to create your own instruments
• Get all updates for free
• 1 Example Live Set Template
• PDF on 432 tuning and Scale of Fifths

Live Pack is made using Live Suite 9 but can be used with Live standard minus a few operator instruments in the live pack.

The PDF takes you step by step into making music in 432 as well as the Scale of Fifths. The PDF is avalible for free download below.  Here are a few images as examples of what is in the PDF showing you where the settings are in Live Instruments to change the tuning to 432.“

Source: http://subaqueousmusic.com/shop/live-packs/432-essentials/

LOGIC PRO – MICROTUNING

In the video below some instructions how to change the Concert Pitch for all your midi instruments. This video does not explain how to change the temperament (Software Instrument Scale), but you can find it just below the Software Instrument Pitch section of the same tab.

Most people using the 432-Tuning (Concert Pitch + Temperament) prefer to use Pythagorean Temperament or 5-Limit / Just Intonation. You should be able to select those from the pull-down menu after selecting the option “fixed”. In case you like to use a slightly altered version of an existing temperament (like for example the “Scale of Fifths” by Maria Renold), then you could select “user” and tune the notes of the scale individually. 

Logic Pro web site: https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/

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