432 Hz Tuning

[Geo]

Interesting thoughts and explanation on this tuning. The Beatles, Cream, Dire Straits, The Doors and Pink Floyd are among ones that have used it but not limited to rock music.

432 Hz Creative Benefits

 

[Chief Distortion Officer]

Interesting thoughts and explanation on this tuning. The Beatles, Cream, Dire Straits, The Doors and Pink Floyd are among ones that have used it but not limited to rock music.

432 Hz Creative Benefits

Really? Which songs?

 

[AAT65]

Eh, no. It’s just tuning a bit flat. There is no science to say it’s better or not: it’s just around 31 cents flatter than A 440Hz tuning.

 

[String Tree]

Keep in mind that everyone in those days loved to speed-up and slow-down the tape after it was recorded.
You couldn't just do it on a whim when there were Keyboards involved.
Still, give it a try.
If it works for you, all the better.

 

[Tim S]

Eh, no. It’s just tuning a bit flat. There is no science to say it’s better or not: it’s just around 31 cents flatter than A 440Hz tuning.

31 cents flat??!! I just spent good money on a Korg clamp-on tuner that’s accurate to 0.10 cent. So 310 units flat is magical & the site mentioned in the OP is hyping an app that’s free for a limited period of time? Sounds like click-bait advertising to me. But, down-tuning is free, I suppose.

 

[Freeman Keller]

The frequency for A4 has changed over the years from 432 or so in Stradavari's time to something around 435 for Lloyd Loar to the now "standard' of 440. My concert violinist niece tunes her Baroque fiddle accordingly and Roger Siminoff argues that the reason Loar's mandolins sound the way they do is the frequencies he tunet them to. No idea about the Doors or Pink Floyd.

 

[Geo]

Really? Which songs?

Said to be whole LPs but probably Google to find. Dark Side of the Moon is one listed as 432.

 

[Geo]

Eh, no. It’s just tuning a bit flat. There is no science to say it’s better or not: it’s just around 31 cents flatter than A 440Hz tuning.

Yes and science can't really say.

 

[Killing Floor]

It’d be too easy to comment that this is junk science or even easier to say the author is a moron.

So I’ll just say I appreciate that it’s naturally consistent with the universe.

And if someone wants to be out of tune have at it.

 

[NewTexican]

I've used the "sweetened tunings" on the Peterson tuners. I think the A is 432 hz but the other strings don't tune perfectly to that.

Sounds VERY cool on acoustic, the bluegrass sweetener. I've not played with other people with that tuning so I don't know how it would blend in a group setting but solo it's pretty cool!

I found this online in a discussion, not sure how accurate it is though...

E1 = -2.3 cent
B2 = 0
G3 = 0
D4 = -0.4 Cent
A5 = -2.1 Cent
E6 = -2.3 Cent

 

[Masmus]

I've used the "sweetened tunings" on the Peterson tuners. I think the A is 432 hz but the other strings don't tune perfectly to that.

Sounds VERY cool on acoustic, the bluegrass sweetener. I've not played with other people with that tuning so I don't know how it would blend in a group setting but solo it's pretty cool!

I found this online in a discussion, not sure how accurate it is though...

E1 = -2.3 cent
B2 = 0
G3 = 0
D4 = -0.4 Cent
A5 = -2.1 Cent
E6 = -2.3 Cent

This is an interesting take, The argument in favor of it seems to not take into account any other note, even on the same string. I can buy into an acoustic instrument resonating and sounding better at different tunings but this would seem to be different on individual instruments. Let alone the work involved in experimenting on different tunings for a piano. I just don't have the time or interest to experiment with this.

 

[teletimetx]

TDPRI has been down this road a few times or more. I claim neutrality. You’re on your own:

Understanding Medieval/Renaissance Music

here's how to understand it: they were INVENTING it (alongside tech etc developments)

www.tdpri.com

Claire's perfect pitch test

Can you do this?

www.tdpri.com

Etc

 

[bottlenecker]

"Unlike the standard tuning of 440 Hz, which is used in most music today, 432 Hz is said to be mathematically consistent with the patterns of the universe. It is often referred to as the 'frequency of the universe' or the 'miracle tone.'"

This quote is a wonderful example of absolute nonsense.
The idea that western harmony music, which is inherently out of tune with itself, is somehow more in tune with "the universe" if the whole mess is shifted down 8 hz, is... hilarious.

 

[Kandinskyesque]

I've used the "sweetened tunings" on the Peterson tuners. I think the A is 432 hz but the other strings don't tune perfectly to that.

Sounds VERY cool on acoustic, the bluegrass sweetener. I've not played with other people with that tuning so I don't know how it would blend in a group setting but solo it's pretty cool!

I found this online in a discussion, not sure how accurate it is though...

E1 = -2.3 cent
B2 = 0
G3 = 0
D4 = -0.4 Cent
A5 = -2.1 Cent
E6 = -2.3 Cent

James Taylor uses a sweetened tuning on his acoustics and I find it pleasantly different.

 

[Pcs264]

I can’t speak to Pink Floyd or Cream, but I can say this about The Beatles and The Doors: when those bands were recording, they all used various organs (Vox, Farfisa, Hammond, etc.) that were built in A=440 and could not be detuned or recalibrated. Everybody playing with those instruments also had to be tuned to A=440. When their recordings sound in a different tuning (there are lots of examples), it was done by altering the tape speed after the recording was mixed. That can sound great or not, but for a guitar & guitarist, it’s not the same as retuning the guitar.

 

[NewTexican]

James Taylor uses a sweetened tuning on his acoustics and I find it pleasantly different.

Yes!

I think this gave Peterson the idea.

 

[telekaster1999]

All music used to be in 432.

 

[Geo]

I can’t speak to Pink Floyd or Cream, but I can say this about The Beatles and The Doors: when those bands were recording, they all used various organs (Vox, Farfisa, Hammond, etc.) that were built in A=440 and could not be detuned or recalibrated. Everybody playing with those instruments also had to be tuned to A=440. When their recordings sound in a different tuning (there are lots of examples), it was done by altering the tape speed after the recording was mixed. That can sound great or not, but for a guitar & guitarist, it’s not the same as retuning the guitar.

Story has it the Beatles went to 440 tuning when using strings, orchestra and so on.

I guess my thought is on how 432 effects the listener and why so many famous or otherwise recordings use it.
Apparently there is something source considered there in listener effect.

 

[tonyguitargoat]

When the Beatles were recording there were no tuners. They probably tuned to the studio piano, which had probably been tuned to a tuning fork. And the tape machines ran at slightly different speeds, either accidentally or deliberately.

 

[TokyoPortrait]

Hi.

Lots of “is said to have” type claims in there.

And “some studies have suggested” too, but, unless I missed it, nary a citation.

Pax/
Dean