Can someone please explain to me inharmonics

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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Not so much what they are, but how to find them from certain frequencies. I somewhat understand that there are some ratios that create inharmonics, for example, from what I have found 2:5 is an inharmonic ratio, but how do we know this, and is this even correct? Also, so then say that I have 100hz, and use the inharmonic ratio of 2:5, gives me 40hz, is then 40hz inharmonic to 100hz? I can't seem to find the method of determining inharmonics.

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Harmonic frequencies are exact multiples of the base frequency.
Inharmonics are all the other frequencies.

Ratios lower than one are not that practical, since you usually want higher frequencies and not lower ones. So instead of 2:5 it should be 5:2. The resulting 250Hz is a harmonic frequency of 50Hz, which is one octave lower than 100Hz, so this is a bit of a grey area.
Last edited by C00kie on Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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C00kie wrote:Harmonic frequencies are exact multiples of the base frequency.
Inharmonics are all the other frequencies.

Ratios lower than one are not that practical, since you usually want higher frequencies and not lower ones. So instead of 2:5 it should be 5:2. The resulting 250Hz is a harmonic frequency of 50Hz, so this is a bit of a grey area.
Yah it doesn't make any sense to me as to how inharmony works. Shouldn't there be some method for determining inharmonics for specific frequencies?

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Qaiphyx wrote:Shouldn't there be some method for determining inharmonics for specific frequencies?
Simple answer: it's just the set of all frequencies other than harmonic ones over the frequency range.

More complicated answer: On the other hand, there are countless ways inharmonics can be structured, and this structure adds a lot of information for us to decode when we hear something. So, 'methods of determining inharmonics for specific frequencies' is actually a hugely open question, with countless possible answers, and as fundamental of a theme as I can think of for working with sound.

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is there any plugin that splits inharmonics from harmonics realtime !? that could be usefull.

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wakax wrote:is there any plugin that splits inharmonics from harmonics realtime !? that could be usefull.
Camel Audio's Alchemy does something like this with its Additive+Spectral import mode :tu:

Once imported, the Additive element contains the harmonic stuff, while the Spectral captures the inharmonic components such as piano hammer strikes and flute breath noise, and you can then modulate these components in real time. You can do amazing things with it :-o

More on this aspect of Alchemy can be read in its on-line manual here:

www.camelaudio.com/alchemymanual/source/import

Martin

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