zanwane 20 W Siretecone dono! oem AlimAtttinessAincnne afte Sound theory: Harmonic content of a waveform UUme at a Multimedia Audio Cou B Seals, absorbs, protects. Dovaopmert st sang. aborpon a reson sok ‘What weve sald so far regarding sinusoids are the foundations ‘upon wich we wil Build the rest of our sound wort. Pure sinusoids dont exist in real if Real sounds are enriched by their fo called harmonics. Let's take a practical example considering what happens when the Sth string of a guitar is plucked by a guitarist. Clearly the answer is that the A note plays: layed by & guitar (Track 10] Fine, But what actually happens? Enjoying this Course? Download the full version! “The string begins to oscillate at a 440 Hz frequency. So then why. doesn’ it emit a simple sinusoid sound rather than the sound we have just lstened to? There are many reasons for this which we will clarify one at atime. What's ‘or sure is that the harmonic content of the note played by the guitarist isnt the same as that ‘of asimplesinusold. When a note is played on an instrument, the frequency that corresponds to the note is generated and this Is called the fundamental. Together with this funéamental other harmonies are generated, which ae al the integer multiples af ths frequency with a progressively decreasing amplitude. Together with the Anote, the following sinusoids are generated: © 40 Hz Fundamental (frst harmonic) © 80 Hz Second harmonic © 1320 Hz Third harmonic ° © 1-440 Hz nth harmonic ‘This behaviour depends on the fact that the string plucked by the guitarist doesnt oscillate only at the fundamental frequency but aso at the harmonic frequencies, as shown inthe following figure: hpsiwwn audiosonica confervccurselpest13Sound_theery_ Harmonic cantanlof_a_wavelorm 4 Gmail + Cen Caixa de entrada (58) importante Chats ® Dr che piace prima dl tut | tul ami w psu Tpaltmess a Couns Dylctona -Insuitiness hice couse yates vnsier-ihtinods hice Caine Gyan sn cats br aaaaank increas set 12zanwane Multimedia Ausio Course Sound theory: Harmonic contort of waveform - Sound enginooring -Auciosonica Harmonic oscillations of a vibrating string ‘As we have said, the first harmonic is called “fundamental’ and it characterizes the note that we "ulna Aue Course effectively perceive. This i because itis the harmonic withthe greatest amplitude. The Second omioas 7600 harmonic has double the frequency of the fundamental, which means that the string is vibrating umesn oo Course as illustrated inthe Figure, overlapping with the fundamental, neon Ifyou are reading this course you probably have some basic musical notions ands0 you probably know that if you add an octave to a note you get to the same note you started off from, in our SNe (850) case the Anote, clearly amore acute A (tty tan apano ifyoure not convinced). So, the second harmonic i the same note asthe fundamental and ads warmth tthe sound. The thi Harmonic no longer an Aand therefore enriches the sound differently. In the figure you can see how the successive harmonics are generated and how the thelr amplitudes diminish as frequency increases. In other words, fa guitar string is plucked, the harmonies that relevantly contribute to the generated sour are about 10. Beyend this point, ‘the amplitude of the rest of the harmonics become ireievant if compared to the amplitude of the fundamental. We can also see how at the centre ofthe string low frequencies prevail, whilst on the sides high ones are more present. This is very important when placing microphones: if we ‘wanted a high frequency sound to come out ofa snare drum we'd point the microphone towards the edge, whilst we wantes to have a sound with more low frequencies we'd point the microphone towards its centre, Guitar amplifiers can be made with both valves and transistors and youll find strong supporters of both because of the different sounds they produce. Transistors tend to emphasize the third harmonic whilst the valves emphasize the second harmonic. Now you know why this has such & strong influence on sound. TAGS: Harmonics Amplifier Transistor Valve (SINGCRRERS) > Sound © Mamonic b Wavalorm > Aun Austin Click here to add a comment hpsiwwn audiosonica confervccurselpest13Sound_theery_ Harmonic cantanlof_a_wavelorm 22