Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Ideas and innovations in Indian classical music
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Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by Nick H »

VK, you would probably (if you don't already know it) find Sonic Visualiser interesting and useful. A music analysis tool written by music analysis academics.

Serious toys for real music geeks :D


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Last edited by Nick H on 06 Jan 2013, 16:00, edited 1 time in total.

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by vasanthakokilam »

Nick, yes indeed. I remembered that we had used Sonic Visualizer in a thread long time back. I found that thread. http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4339 ... in-cm.html I have not used it since then. I just downloaded the 2.0 version. I will give it a try. Thanks.

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by Nick H »

I love wandering around tool shops; I love wandering around musical instrument, audio and studio equipment shops. Doesn't mean I can use or play any of it --- but sometimes can pass on a useful hint :)
I remembered that we had used Sonic Visualizer in a thread long time back
Oh, wow... just from p.1 I can see you guys already got into some deep stuff with the tool then.

SrinathK
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Joined: 13 Jan 2013, 16:10

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by SrinathK »

In case of certain female artistes or children, the shruti can be even above 6 (e.g. Smt. Nityashree in her earlier days). Which is probably the only time the Indian violin is tuned even higher than Western concert pitch.

Lalgudi Jayaraman typically played at D# (2.5 kattai), M.S.Gopalakrishnan tuned his to E (3 kattai or close to it), T.N Krishnan tunes his to F (4 kattai)

Among vocalists T.M. Krishna has by far the greatest range I have seen. At two concerts of his at our institute his range extended from anumanthara sthyai panchamam (the G1 at 52 Hz !!!) to ati tara sthyai shadjamam (C5) and the highest note he seems to have hit (from one of the forum reviews) was an unreal E5 (!!!) which brings his range even more than 3.5 octaves. After that first concert I asked TMK how he increased his range over the years and he said that if the voice is trained correctly its range opens up with time (he did not say how -- possibly due to elimination of breaks between registers??) . He also said that on a very good day he could almost hit 4 octaves. Then he came back 2 years later and he hit those 3.5 octaves with even more ease than before. Also no one has the kind of rich bass tone that TMK has in the lower octave.

Gayathri rama
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Joined: 07 Jul 2017, 23:40

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by Gayathri rama »

Can some one provide the full list of current carnatic vocalists like Sudha raghunathan, Sanjay etc and give their respective frequencies.

Vayoo Flute
Posts: 104
Joined: 15 Jan 2018, 00:53

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by Vayoo Flute »

Although indian instruments such as the sruti box are now tuned to the A=440hz standard, has anyone noticed that the standard some 25-30 years ago was a little higher, at A=445hz or so? This is not surprising as there is some variation in standards throughout the world. Germany and Japan typically use A=445hz or A=446hz.

nayam
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Joined: 31 Aug 2019, 14:52

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by nayam »

It is helpful information for me. Thanks for links.
Technology Updates

thenpaanan
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 19:45

Re: Absolute Frequencies of CM vocal and instruments

Post by thenpaanan »

Vayoo Flute wrote: 18 Feb 2018, 09:38 Although indian instruments such as the sruti box are now tuned to the A=440hz standard, has anyone noticed that the standard some 25-30 years ago was a little higher, at A=445hz or so? This is not surprising as there is some variation in standards throughout the world. Germany and Japan typically use A=445hz or A=446hz.
Indeed. Back in the early 90s I brought to the US my old sruthi box (you know, those ancient instruments with bellows and circular stops for pitch settings, that multiple generations now have never seen) I noticed right away that the available pitches on the box were all slightly higher than the corresponding notes on a standard piano. At that time I did not know the actual difference. In 1992 I noticed that the visiting vidwan Shri B Rajam Iyer had a little whistle to tune his tambura to 1.5 kattai which would nominally be C#. But I discovered that it was fractionally higher than C#. I asked Shri Rajam Iyer about his whistle and he told me it had been in possession forever and he did not know how that pitch was set. Perhaps earlier boxes were tuned to the A=445Hz standard but the question would still remain -- was there a notion of a standard pitch (say 1 kattai) for earlier generations before the advent of modern technology?

Which also leads to the related question, how are Indian harmoniums tuned? I have seen concerts with multiple harmoniums, so it is obviously being addressed but how and when exactly the standard was set is not clear to me. Same question applies to flutes, but I have heard that there is a discrepancy between South Indian and North Indian manufactured flutes (could not find an authoritative source to back this up). All the flute players I spoke to did not know how the flutes were tuned at manufacture.

-Thenpaanan

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