Overtone display

[canadianlight]

Is there a software (score editor, daw etc...) that can automatically display the harmonic overtones against a staff/midi keyboard?

Like you inputting a note and it automatically draws in the where the next say 10 overtones are?

Something like this, but one that does it for any note you have placed down that you want to examine.

[BertKoor]

Is there a software (score editor, daw etc...) that can automatically display the harmonic overtones against a staff/midi keyboard?

Not that I know of... It's rather easy to just count them out, it's always the same series in semitones.

Imho it's usability is rather limited. What the short article on khoomei.com does not tell you, is that quite rapidly the harmonic overtones get out of key.

Here's a chart I drew up from a base frequency of 55 Hz (A2). I picked that frequency because there's no fraction part and thus no rounding error in the calculated frequencies.

Code: Select all

Harmonic Frequency  Note   Cents detuned
   0         55      A2       0
   1        110      A3       0
   2        165      E4      +2
   3        220      A4       0
   4        275      C#5    -14
   5        330      E5      +2
   6        385      G5     -31
   7        440      A5       0
   8        495      B5      +4
   9        550      C#6    -14
  10        605      D#6    -49
  11        660      E6      +2
  12        715      F6     +41
  13        770      G6     -31
  14        825      G#6    -12
  15        880      A6       0
  16        935      A#6     +5
  17        990      B6      +4
  18       1045      C7      -3
  19       1100      C#7    -14
  20       1155      D7     -29

You see the fourth harmonic is 14 cents out of tune. The tenth harmonic is worst: it sits right between a D and D#.

[jancivil]

[pedantry warning]

I can feature why one would want to start at 0... BUT: The fundamental is practically always called the first harmonic, for good reason. The series is considered to be an arithmetical series. So 1:1, fundamental, 2:1, second harmonic; 3:1, third harmonic... IE: 3:1 is an octave + a fifth.

A harmonic is any member of the harmonic series, an ideal set of frequencies that are positive integer multiples of a common fundamental frequency. The fundamental is also considered a harmonic because it is 1 times itself. A harmonic partial is any real partial component of a complex tone that matches (or nearly matches) an ideal harmonic. - John R. Pierce (2001). "Consonance and Scales". In Perry R. Cook. Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53190-0.

wiki: partial/harmonic/fundamental/inharmonicity

but anyway, inclusion of higher partials does lead to <inharmonicity> which is somewhat avoided, for instance in certain instrument construction typically. I like inharmonicity myself. And, the 12 equal to the octave as a basis is against nature in favor of the total artifice of 12th root of two, ultimately. But if one is truly conditioned, the 11th, 13th partials etc are pretty out, yeah. Reject 'usability' of the harmonic series out of hand for being out-of-tune? Really? What use model is that exactly.

[BertKoor]

Ok, if "first harmonic" is the base tone itself, then indeed I shoukd have started at one instead of zero.

My grief is that staff notation gives the illusion of the overtones being in pitch. No way to notate it's half way detuned in either direction.

[Winstontaneous]

Imho it's usability is rather limited. What the short article on khoomei.com does not tell you, is that quite rapidly the equally-tempered scale gets out of key.

Fixed that for you

[BertKoor]

Fixed that for you

If you wanted to do a favour, you'd fixed it correctly:

What the short article on khoomei.com does not tell you, is that quite rapidly the harmonic overtones get out of key of the equally-tempered scale.

Anyway, for the OP: you can make a midi clip of this serie and simply transpose that clip in a DAW or whatever notation software.