Subject:Frequency, Pitch and Music Note

Posted by: johnb332

Date:7/2/2011 7:29:50 PM

I am trying to measure the frequency and pitch of a single tone I have recorded in Sound Forge 7 as a .wav file and then determine what musical note it is? Is this possible in Sound Forge 7? In Sound Forge 10? Or do I need something else altogether?

Many thanks for any help...

Subject:RE: Frequency, Pitch and Music Note

Reply by: ChristoC

Date:7/3/2011 2:39:09 AM

Only program I know does that for sure is something like Celemony's "Melodyne Editor" - see http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=demo_editor. That will report exact musical Note & +/- varience in Cents.

Subject:RE: Frequency, Pitch and Music Note

Reply by: MarkWWW

Date:7/3/2011 5:29:41 AM

You can do this in SF with a bit of external help.

First, use the Spectrum Analysis tool to determine the frequency of the tone you have recorded. It will probably not be a mathematically pure tone, so it will show up in the spectrum analysis display as a series of equally spaced peaks - these are the fundamental and the various harmonics contained in the tone. The one you are interested in is the lowest (and probably largest) peak, the fundamental frequency of the tone. Using the settings in the Spectrum Analysis tool you can home in on the frequency area surrounding the fundamental until you can read off the frequency (by pointing to it with the cursor) to sufficient accuracy. Let's say you measure it to be 1111 Hz.

You can then plug 1111 Hz into any of a number of conversion charts/websites to find the nearest standard pitch (and how much sharp or flat of that pitch) it is. For example, if you go to http://www.flutopedia.com/pitch_to_frequency.htm and enter 1111 Hz it will tell you that this corresponds to a C# (and is a touch sharp - by 4 cents or 1 twentyfifth of a semitone).

Mark

Subject:RE: Frequency, Pitch and Music Note

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:7/3/2011 9:21:56 AM

No need to go through all that.
Spectrum Analyzer in Sound Forge (7 at least) gives you the frequency and note value of the prominent frequency.
If it is but a single tone you are analyzing, it's a done deal.

Subject:RE: Frequency, Pitch and Music Note

Reply by: MarkWWW

Date:7/3/2011 10:01:43 AM

Ah, even better.

I was using SF10, which unfortunately no longer identifies the nearest standard pitch (though it does automatically give the frequency of the main peak, something I had missed earlier).

But if you need to know how near it is to the nearest standard pitch (i.e. how much sharp or flat), you'll still need to use a method similar to the second half of my suggestion.

Mark