Tuning Musical Instruments

Term Paper # 100402

Engineering > Electrical
Music Studies

An overview of the tuning of musical instruments using electronic devices.

1,594 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how electrical engineering helps musicians to identify the precision of musical notes, record their albums, and finally modify what has been recorded. It provides background context about the theory associated with various devices with an emphasis on critical analysis of the current solutions to the problem of having a standard measure for pitch of instruments. It also looks at how currently the "adaptive filter" devices and digital signal processing ("DSP") tuners are the most common and available solutions in the market. The paper includes diagrams and equations where relevant.

Outline:
Introduction
Sounds and Music
The Tuners for Musical Instruments
Latest Developments
Suggestion for Improvement
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"A musical note refers to a specific frequency, "A note is a sign used in music to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound" [1]. Every sound is a wave and as such is characterized by its frequency. However, listening to only one, single frequency is not that enjoyable. The truth is that human ear is more sensitive to a frequency difference rather than a single frequency. Therefore, a musically desirable sound is the one rich in harmonics. "The harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency." [2] For example, consider a sound having a fundamental frequency f, its harmonics are then 2 f, 3 f, 4 f, 5 f, 6 f, etc. Another sound with the fundamental frequency 2 f would have 4 f, 6 f, and 8 f etc. as its harmonics. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Wikipedia, free online dictionary
A. V. Oppenheim and R. W. Schafer, "Discrete-Time Signal Processing" Prentice Hall, 1989
M. K. Pourtorab, "Theory of Music", 25th edition, Cheshmeh Pub: 2004
R. Manbachi, "Analysing Musical Sounds", Electrical Engineering Bachelor Thesis, Sharif University of Technology , 2003
J. Regan, S. Agili and A. Morales, "Using a Digital Signal Processor for real time implementation of a tuning device", Penn State University: 2005