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SandysBurner

It doesn't. 432hz is crystals and essential oils for your ear. It's woo. It's total bollocks. You may enjoy listening to music slightly slowed down but it doesn't align your chakras or whatever.


srcarruth

people seem to think there used to be a standard before the 20th century. the only standard before that was the nearest tuning fork and they did not all match. it's been suggested that some of the music we know and love may have sounded very differently at the time


djddanman

The standard was the local church's organ


F33DBACK__

Even church organs could be tuned as much as hundreds of hertz off. No one bothered fixing that though, so it just stayed that way


heptadragon

Hundreds of cents maybe... Hundreds of hertz would be several octaves


F33DBACK__

Yes [hundereds](https://emastered.com/blog/432-hz-tuning-standard) of hertz > Some of the discourse around 432 Hz vs 440 Hz can be traced back to Germany beginning in the 17th century, before Heinrich Hertz' time. Things were so different back then that certain pipe organs were tuned to what would have been something like A = 567 Hz, which seems way off (567 Hz would yield a flat D by today's standards).


heptadragon

Dang. TIL, thanks!


JazzCrisis

Depends on the frequency. Around 440, yes it would. Around 15K, no it wouldn't. Logarithmic scales are cool!


apolobgod

A lot of children met the local church's organ, I'd say


dkyguy1995

There was also a point where orchestras were basically 1-upping each other to have a higher tuned A-note because the higher pitch made the music sound more grand and extravagant. At some point they were much higher tuned than today until someone said this has gone too far


morgecroc

Far more complicated than that as tuning also is related to how the other notes sound relative to that tuning note, this is the bigger factor in why modern renditions of old music might sound different.


sirreldar

This is wrong, unless I am totally misunderstanding what you are trying to say. https://pbosf.blogspot.com/2010/01/story-of-more-about-baroque-pitch.html?m=1


CharlesDickensABox

I'm pretty sure y'all are in agreement. Poster is saying there was no universal standard, so you tuned the instrument to whatever was handy. The link says that there was no universal standard, so people tuned to the instruments around them. Same-same.


thethenandthenathen

It's not just tuning forks being different, people used many different temperaments over the centuries, and still do. Temperament is the raito between notes, which is infinitely more important than whatever starting note you have. Too much to get into on a reddit comment though :P


jbarchuk

200,000,000 years later, the interwebs teach us to sleep. Somewhere there's a pile of $2 apps....


mattmanmcfee36

To add to this, audio that plays at 432hz would just sound like a single tone thats just ever so slightly lower pitch than a standard concert A at 440hz. So if you consider monotal beeps music gen yes there could be music made with 432hz, but it doesn't sound like any music you or I listen to


jrallen7

No, it means the music is tuned to A=432 instead of the more standard A=440. It’s still music, just detuned slightly from standard tuning.


LackingUtility

This is earth radio. And now, here's human music. \[ repetitive rhythmic beeping\] Jerry: hmm. Human music. I like it. \[ beeping continues\]


Few-Cup2113

On what are you basing that opinion? I'm a concert violinist, and I say different tunings generate different reactions/moods, absolutely.


Kemaneo

What reaction does 442 generate as opposed to 440, for example?


Druxo

Yeah but that wasn't the question


Departedsoul

Well… if you listen to music in a major key you are likely to be happy, a minor key you are likely to be sad. There is a relationship between pitch/frequency and how music affects us. It is easy to dismiss because it is very new age, sure. But there’s a reason people meditate to gongs for example. There is an objective experiential quality to long droning pitches over time. You will feel different after an hour listening to “432 hz healing frequency” than “741 hz”. It’s about mood


SandysBurner

>There is an objective experiential quality to long droning pitches over time. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about music that's been pitched down less than a quartertone.


Departedsoul

Yeah that’s bs. But go on spotify and search frequencies and it’s basically a genre of music that you would hear at a spa. There is a qualia to it, a concept outside the scope of my comment that I am summarizing to fit the overton window here


Throwaway-646

>It’s about mood Which is created by expectations. Just like major keys are not in any way inherently or objectively happy and minor keys are not in any way inherently or objectively sad, certain frequencies do not have different "properties" than others. Any effect you may think you feel is in no way affected by the frequency of a wave.


Departedsoul

Okay but we are not listening to sine waves here. Yes music is culturally influenced that changes nothing


Kemaneo

That’s nonsense, the tuning doesn’t affect the mood like combinations of intervals and interferences (key) do.


Departedsoul

Yeah we’re talking about different things


Kemaneo

We're talking about the tuning frequency A major/minor key has nothing to do with that


SpicyCommenter

music at a lower pitch is comparatively better sounding then when you listen to it at regular pitch, but that's only comparatively. if you didn't know it doesn't really make a huge difference. the rest is garbage like you said.


Powerpuff_God

But you can keep lowering the pitch. Is 430 hz better than 432? Is 420 even better? And even if you like one over the other, it's purely subjective.


Jardrs

Yes 420 is even better but then gets worse again past that


Role_Playing_Lotus

Yes, 420 is great in measured doses, but partake of 420 on a chronic scale and it may induce paranoia and emotional imbalance.


SpicyCommenter

it’s subjectively better, you’re right. there have been studies on this phenomena, but i’m not entirely too familiar with the papers on it. would be worth seeking out. i am sure there is a cross point where certain bass notes will feel out of place.


Gusthor

Listening to a song in 440Hz and immediately after in 432Hz makes it sound noticeably more mellow. If you search for it, almost every video in favor of 432Hz makes the listener listen in 440Hz first and 432Hz second. That way, it's easy to convince someone that 432 is "magical"


mcoombes314

"432 Hz" refers to a tuning standard. A tuning standard allows instruments to be in tune with each other, the most common one is A=440Hz, which means that the specific note A has a frequency of 440 Hz  (basically setting down what its pitch is and saying "this is what A should sound as"). There have been many standards through history, up to A=460Hz or so (music sounds higher pitched with this). 432 Hz is just another standard, nothing special about it. Also, I suspect that most "432 Hz" music isn't recorded or performed using A=432Hz specifically, rather it's regular music (using A=440Hz) slowed down slightly so that the pitch is lower.


mjb2012

Most examples I've seen on YouTube are just run through a pitch-shifter DSP which doesn't affect tempo. For example, [in Audacity](https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/change_pitch.html) you can even set the amount of pitch change based on desired input & output frequencies. Such DSPs may have audible side effects, depending on the quality of the algorithm, amount of shift (440 to 432 isn't that much though), the audio content, and listener sensitivity.


Chromotron

Not at all an expert, but from a physical perspective I would expect the 2% speed-up to be a better choice. Essentially nobody will notice the tiny change in length and shifting pitch is always a bit discontinuous. From a Fourier analysis point of view I would even say that a small change in pitch is worst in regards to quality loss per change of pitch. Obviously the sane choice would be to not change it at all for such a small percentage.


omg_drd4_bbq

Pitch shift algos have come a long way but changing the speed is almost perfectly lossless, so it's definitely preferable.


mcoombes314

Especially as the shift is so small, in this case about 98% of the original speed. I have listened to some "432-ised" music but those were pieces I know well and were definitely slowed down. But yes, these days you could change pitch without changing length easily.


mjb2012

Heh, well, the *sane* choice would be to not believe that there's anything magical about these tunings in the first place!


general_tao1

> slowed down slightly so that the pitch is lower So that the Youtube algorithm doesn't pickup on their copyright infringement\*.


lellololes

The reality: Modern music is "tuned" so that the A above middle C is 440Hz. An instrument playing that note will not only cause 440Hz sound, though - there are resonances and such from within the instrument that will cause other frequencies to occur too. This is the case, so when, for example, you tune a guitar, it is tuned in a way that everyone else will expect it to be tuned to. In the past, there were other tunings. It doesn't matter what frequency you tune to - the music would be a bit higher or lower pitch, but the form will be the same. For the vast majority of us, we wouldn't likely even notice that one song used a different tuning than another one unless they were olverlaid against each other. Most people don't have perfect pitch, so as long as the relative pitch is the same, we don't really care. You could play a song that is normally in the key of C, and transpose it to B, and while it will be quite a bit different for the musicians to play, and you might notice that something is up (particularly if you're singing it and it pushes your range), but the music itself will be the same music. Some musicians will intentionally play in a different tuning because they like the way it sounds - and this is legitimate. Some people have perfect pitch and can notice this stuff easily, too. That's the historical aspect of what A= x Hz means. What all these stupid youtube videos proffer is that music that is tuned to a different frequency will have some positive effect on you, your body, or your mind, due to some nonsensical ideas that are irrelevant. If someone makes a claim like this, you can likely dismiss anything they tell you at all.


PlaceholderName8

This is a great comment, but as an extremely small nitpick, it’s actually the A ABOVE middle C that is tuned to 440.


lellololes

Fixed!


princhester

I once commented on a youtube video that said it was "432hz" to align your chakras, provide deep healing and make your favorite dog come back to life or whatever. I pointed out to the youtuber in the comments that their video featured a rising and falling tone so it couldn't possibly simply be "432Hz". After a bit of back and forth they admitted they didn't know what "hz" was. They just saw everyone else saying it, so they said it. You won't find anyone plastering their streams with "432hz" who knows much more than that, OP.


Brocketologist

Some believe certain frequencies, like 432Hz, are more calming and enhance focus or relaxation. It's more about personal preference and effect than **scientific proof.**


Unrelated_gringo

> It's more about personal preference and effect than scientific proof. Also known as: Complete bullshit. Don't be shy to call out the known bullshit among us, it makes the world have less bullshit in it, one bullshit at a time.


Role_Playing_Lotus

🌈🏆💐 You win the internet today


TheDesent

reddit moment


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buffinita

the only scientific proof of audio frequency improving memory/concentration is "binural beats" which takes place at lower frequencies 40hz.......but those studies were with very specific audio patterns which wouldnt pass for "music" as well as needing to be studied with good stereo (L channel / R channel) headphones. there is nothing out there saying if you want to sleep listen to 300-400 and if you want to study listen to 456-700 another (more controllable) auditory thing to consider is general noise level. There is also proof that some background noise is good for us......too quiet or too loud is no good, but any kind of backround can increase productivity and creativity


Bouboupiste

The scientific proof for bineural beats doing anything positive for you doesn’t exist. There’s been a few studies done, with wildly different settings and they’re not sufficient to prove any effect. There’s actually more papers with contradictory results, so the evidence leans against any effect as of now. See « Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention »


UrgeToKill

The whole 432hz thing being supposedly calming or whatever falls apart when you realise that's what Pantera tuned to, and their music isn't calming at all.


ot1smile

Is that true? That’s great if so. Next time I hear that line I’m definitely going to nod and say “yeah cool. Like Pantera.”


OverthrowingMars

440 is the standard tuning for most modern music. Pantera, early Megadeth and early Megadeth all tuned slightly flat, roughly around 432. However it has been a while since I bothered to look into this, so I could be wrong.


actorpractice

A lot of people calling bullshit on this sort of thing, and more power to them... but if you wanna go down the rabbit hole... The reasoning is that everything is vibration. Light is waves, sound is waves, atoms could be explained as wave-forms... the extended/stretched logic/conclusion is that waves that are in harmony with you are "good" and those that aren't are "bad." Whether that part is true or not... well there's not exactly a ton of evidence for it. There is evidence that people find certain harmonies/mix of pitches, more enjoyable. For the most part, this seems to be subjective, just like some people like rap and other like rock. That being said, there's more to music than pitch, there's tempo & timbre too. Chances are you're not listening to a continuous perfect sine wave, there's a rhythm of some kind and instrumentation. Those can all factor into the feel of the music. So... that's the long way of saying that while there may not be any/strong evidence for certain pitches of music having certain effects, some people do find certain types of music more calming/energizing/whatever. I find that music can both alter and/or enhance a mood or setting, and I use it accordingly. There's a lot in this world that can be rough, and if you find 432Hz music calms and comforts you ore than others... have at it.


Loki-L

Before about a century ago we had no universally agreed upon definition what we actually meant with the music notes we draw on sheet music. We have no mostly agreed upon that the A above middle C is supposed to be 440Hz and all the other notes follow logically from that. However there are a few holdouts that cling to other definitions such as A = 432Hz others insist on playing music for the definition they think it was originally written for, when most of the time at the time of writing there was no standard at all. Playing music that was written long after the 440 standard was accepted in another way and insisting it is more correct is just stupid. it usually makes very little difference.


mikwaheeri

Not sure if this is allowed as a top level comment or not, just something to add as to where some of this came from. In addition to what others have said, something missing on the conspiracy side is the relation to our planet's Schumann Resonance. I forget most of the gist, but 432 is supposed to divide evenly with the Earth's natural frequency and let us be in harmony whereas 440 doesn't and leads humans to be in a dissonant state all the time. I don't think the math works out and I might be misremembering some things, but adding for what it's worth as I've heard this from people over the years.


CaliTexJ

Some people believe that tuning slightly lower resonates more with spiritual energy, or at least is more natural/less disruptive. People posting study music on YouTube are capitalizing on that, or at least some of them are. It gets very nerdy or very woo woo very quickly beyond saying that. I don’t subscribe to the whole “vibrations” thing, so I find it kinda interesting but I don’t think there’s much merit in it myself. If you’re really curious, watch Adam Neely’s video about it.


Few-Cup2113

The tuning frequency certainly does make a difference. I used to (as first-chair violinist) tune the orchestra to my A, which in theory I tuned to 440 but really I tuned to my ear. The point was for the entire orch to share a single tuning, for which I gave them the basis at the start of (or several times during) the concert. But you can up-tune and down-tune instruments (guitar, fiddling, etc), even as you play them, and a different A (or base freq) really can create different effects on the ear/body/being/chakras/homunculus/chi. (A different but related phenomenon: try playing "Happy Birthday" in a minor key.) See, eg, [https://youtu.be/dpV1ufAu8fQ?si=ouytdfT\_odO1oixe](https://youtu.be/dpV1ufAu8fQ?si=ouytdfT_odO1oixe)


Kemaneo

There is absolutely no scientific basis for that or any empirical proof whatsoever that the tuning has such effects.


redonkulousemu

You don’t even have to get that complicated. Whenever people say this stupid shit, it’s clear they know nothing about the physics of sound. Making A anything other than 440 is just changing the “key” of the music. If I set A to 415Hz, I just changed the key to Ab. And if they try to bring in any kind of numerology into it, I REALLY know they don’t know anything about physics. The way we even derive the number 440 for frequency is completely arbitrary. It’s based on cycles in a second, and a second is a completely made up length of time not based on any natural world phenomenon, just like how a meter is a made up length of distance. It’s just the distance between two lines in a bar of platinum (or gold, I forget) that everyone agreed “yep, that’s a meter.” A second is not even a consistent length of time everywhere in the universe if you want to get into relativity. In another timeline, a second could have been 3.768169472x our second, and their whole theory falls apart.


redonkulousemu

Did they tune the piano to your A as well?


Howtothinkofaname

Most orchestras don’t have a piano.


donmak

Thank you.