Sounds

[poohead]

How does two musical instruments sound differently when they are playing the same note?

[/0]

Different musical instruments allow for different overtones (higher harmonics) when a note is played. The types of overtones that an instrument allows gives it its unique sound.

[cypriottiger]

i did the same question an hour ago the one with the double bass and violin?
they may play the same note but i guess the questin really just requires logic and the general knowledge that a double bass produces a deep sound (lower frequency) than the violin that produces a higher pitch (high frequency)

[/0]

I think what op meant was for example if a piano and a violin play notes of 512Hz, why do they sound different?

Take a guitar, for example. The resonant frequencies are: . If you play the fundamental, , then you can simultaneously excite higher harmonics, such as n=2,3,4... etc. In fact, if you play any frequency, you will excite overtones of that frequency.

The degree to which these overtones are excited depends on the type of instrument, and in a sense defines the sound of the instrument. I remember seeing in year 12 that violins tended to excite much higher overtones than a piano, which is why they sounded more shrill. In fact, some of the higher overtones can sound rather bad, so in the really top-class instruments they use methods to cancel them out, such as pinching the string at a certain point to cancel out the standing wave of that particular harmonic, thus improving the sound quality of the instrument.

[pooshwaltzer]

I, alone, could play just as well as the entire London Symphony Orchestra...on the moon.

[poohead]

wow u guys seem to know a fair bit
thanks (Y)
Im struggling with sound
so another sound question:
how does resonace & standing waves in a column of air relate to Kundt's Tube