source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 01:13:21 -0800 Subject: Re: Replies - "ghosttones" From: Matt Nathan Charles Lucy wrote: > Please can we get some definitions of these terms for me, > and also for others who might like to use them with minimal > ambiguity. timbre tone quality, the way a note sounds (as determined by its partials) simple tone sine wave, also called pure tone, (a timbre with one partial) complex tone a timbre with multiple partials partials the simple-tone or sine-wave components of a timbre harmonic partials partials whose frequencies relate in whole numbers inharmonic partials partials whose frequencies do not relate in whole numbers flageolet tone a sound you get when you lightly touch a string while exciting it ghosttones (same as flageolet tone) > >You're saying that the various tones you get by > >lightly touching an open string in various places > >form a continuous series separated by intervals of > >fourths and fifths. > > >Please write out this series of fourths and fifths > > It is easiest to do this by posting the guitar fretting > positions as a start. Fretting positions say nothing about ghosttones. A fretted string is effectively an open string with shorter length. One can place frets at arbitrary positions and produce equally strong sounds. Please explain the sequence of ghosttones which occur in a series of fourths and fifths. > "Ghosttones" can be found at frets close in the cycle > of fourths and fifths. > i.e. Through fifths E, B, F#, C#, G#, etc. > Through fourths D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb etc. What are the frequencies of these ghosttones (rather than the frequencies of the fretted tones at the same locations (which is what your charts show))? When you say "at fret...B" do you mean only a single fret or all the frets which produce B's? > The volume is lower the further you move away from A. I'm plucking my violin as I write this. I notice that the strongest ghosttone is the one I get when I touch the string near the middle. Does your sequence include this ghosttone? Are you saying that there are no ghosttones at places other than these fret positions? Are you sure that the volumes of the ghosttones in your series are in the same order as the series (in other words that no ghosttone is louder than one earlier in the series)? Are you saying that the volume of a ghosttone some number of fretted-fifths along the series is as loud as the volume of a ghosttone the same number of fretted-fourths along the series (for instance ghosttone at fret for C# as loud as ghosttone at fret for F)? Matt Nathan Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 19 Feb 1997 12:14 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11371; Wed, 19 Feb 1997 12:14:34 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11366 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id DAA10386; Wed, 19 Feb 1997 03:11:42 -0800 Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 03:11:42 -0800 Message-Id: <330ADDFE.11F5@ix.netcom.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu