John

jb101
 
 
  Besides try telling an old hand piano tuner to tune to a lower frequency! You may wind up in the piano permanently!

Interestingly, piano tuners will often vary the tuning over a piano's range, e.g. stretch tuning

jb101
Tuning to E Flat, or tuning your guitar to drop C will make a massive difference. Tuning to A=432 instead of A=440 will not.

Well as luck would have it, there's a guitar sitting next to me with G FORCE. Hold on a sec...
 
Okay, I can store a temporary reference tuning that puts A at 434 Hz. It's possible to go lower, but that takes a little more effort.
 
I went back and forth a few times between A = 434 and A = 440. I can't tell a whole lot of difference but it is measurable. I find it easier to hear a difference when tuning sharper.

More Science Stuff! Being at Gibson sure is a helluva resource.
 
Turns out the reason why G FORCE guitars are spec'ed to leave the factory with accuracy of at last +/- 3 cents is because virtually no one can discriminate pitch differences of under +/- 5 cents. So 432 is only 8 cents away from 440 Hz - probably something most people can't hear as a difference anyway.
 
Here's an online pitch discrimination test where you can find out the extent of your ability to discriminate pitch. Check it out!

I use A-440 simply because it is a standard that is used by most folks these days. So when I send a track or receive a track from another studio, I know it will be in tune. I specify that anyone sending me something to work on be sure it was recorded A-440
 
I know that "back in the day" many bands did not use A-440. I specifically bought a JVC turntable with an adjustable speed drive so that I could retune the records by changing their RPM slightly rather than retuning my guitar with every album I put on it.  When I asked the guy in the store for his variable speed turntables, the first words out of his mouth were... "you must be a guitarist"...... yup.

Guitarhacker
I know that "back in the day" many bands did not use A-440. I specifically bought a JVC turntable with an adjustable speed drive so that I could retune the records by changing their RPM slightly rather than retuning my guitar with every album I put on it.

FWIW a lot of times the track would be cut at 440 Hz, but sped up or slowed down in the mixing or mastering process.

I'm more likely to tune down the older I get. It has nothing to do with metaphysics and everything to do with the reduced elasticity of my vocal cords.
 
Yeah, the whole A-432 thing is nonsense. Not like placing rocks under your speakers, that's real. 

bitflipper
I'm more likely to tune down the older I get. It has nothing to do with metaphysics and everything to do with the reduced elasticity of my vocal cords.
 
Yeah, the whole A-432 thing is nonsense. Not like placing rocks under your speakers, that's real. 

 
That's the funniest thing I have seen in some time..  Thank you for posting.
 
Would I need different "special physical properties of highly symmetrical crystal structures" if I tune to A=432, or will these ones do?
 
What percentage will they make my mixes better?  It is science, after all...

Ouch... They are supposed to go under the speakers??? I have been eating them... No real science to them, but I can definitely FEEL the difference!

bitflipper
Not like placing rocks under your speakers, that's real. 

But that's only for rock music, right?
 
BTW did anyone take the pitch discrimination test?

I took the test - very illuminating.  I hope everyone has a go.  Make sure you take the test at the end.
 
This is the thread I meant to post earlier:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Tuning-A-to-432Hz-rather-than-the-default-440Hz-m2859951.aspx
 
Ignoring the jibing between Chuck and myself (we are friends now) there are some interesting points.  I particularly like brundlefly's comment at post [link=javascript:void(showMsgNum(2869544))]#106[/link].
 
There is also a link to the youtube video I mentioned above.