440 Hertz vs 432 Hertz discussion

[Ducky123]

Heya! So I've been listening to remixes of my favourite composer and then I stumbled about these 432 Hz videos on YouTube and got curious because, to me, there wasn't any difference that I could distinctly notice until I did some research... and now I'm super curious what's everybody's take on this debate in music that has been going on for quite a while now, apparently.

I'll just share the article with you guys, read it yourself it has all the major information you need to know about this subject here's the article
here's the article

And for those lazy ones, here's a very rudimentary summary of what I just learned about this:
- There's a standardised tune for music so everybody knows what a certain key on an instrument has to sound like (if the instrument has to be tuned like a piano, violin, guitar etc.) which is 440Hz for the "A(4)" key
(Hertz is a unit to describe how many waves of sound you hear per second. 440 Hz means 440 sound waves per second)
-ancient cultures like the Greek or the Egyptians are reported to have been using a different "tune" than we do nowadays. At 432 Hz, it is reportedly sounding more harmonical (according to the claims made in that article) and there's even supposed to be mathematical proof (even wavenumbers throughout all keys as opposed to uneven numbers in the 440 Hz music). Some people say 432 Hz tuned music can have meditative qualities and a bunch of other ways to influence you. Heck, there are even conspiracy theories as for why 440 Hz turned out to be chosen as the standard tune instead of 432 Hz!

Well, now you'll probably want to hear the actual difference, here are some videos and other interesting stuff I found
link 1 & link 2 videos of people comparing both tunes... test yourself
or play around with this tool here

As far as I can tell, my preferred tune is 432 Hz. If you listen to songs in standard 440 Hz and then listen to 432 Hz versions that you'll more than likely discover on YouTube you can probably make up your mind the easiest.

PS: Just before I post this, just found another article with a lot of... interesting video links and a lot more science and maths behind this, but it's a bit of an read here you go!
here you go!

[action9000]

I don't really have a strong opinion on this issue. What I will say is that having a standard makes everyone's life SO MUCH NICER!

Knowing that A=440 Hz for everything I do eliminates any problems.

There's a similar debate on whether we, as humans, should be using Base 12 for numeric work rather than Base 10. Base 10 was chosen fairly arbitrarily, for simple reasons such as having 10 fingers to count with. Base 12, however, would have simplified a lot of things in mathematics according to a number of experts.

At this point though, Base 10 is so ingrained into our society that the gains of switching to base 12 are offset by the extreme difficulty of making the switch. Same issue with QWERTY keyboard. DVORAK exists but it's far from ubiquitous despite being a "better" keyboard layout as it was designed with speed and comfort in mind, versus QWERTY which was designed to minimize typewriter jamming. QWERTY (AZERTY, etc.) is simply the de facto standard because it's everywhere. It may not be ideal but it's easier and more productive than trying to switch the standard across the world.

It appears to be a similar thing with the 432 vs 440 debate. 440 is so common in modern culture, from the software common in the music industry to how students are taught in music classes. Arguing that 432 is somehow "better" is rather subjective and convincing the world to switch is likely an effort in futility.

As for me? I don't really care. Switching would be a heck of a lot of work for the world and the gains seem minimal and inconsistent from genre to genre of music. I don't really see a reason to switch globally. 432 can be a composition technique if your music calls for it and that's fine. Introducing musicians to the concept of 432 is probably a very good idea but switching standards is honestly more trouble than it's worth.

[Ducky123]

You bring up some good point there I didn't think about previously. Of course I'm not saying the standard should be switched. That'd bring up lots of problems indeed.
It'd be great though if this tune got a little more appreciation and acknowledgement by the world and not simply be ignored just because it's not the mainstream tune everybody uses

[ADFan185]

I'll give this music a shot and see if I like it.

[action9000]

It'd be great though if this tune got a little more appreciation and acknowledgement by the world and not simply be ignored just because it's not the mainstream tune everybody uses smile.gif

I will agree with this. I think it's pretty safe to say that most people who haven't studied music wouldn't even be aware of the fact that this debate exists or would ever have a concept of "standard tuning" in their minds. I know until I was exposed to the idea of standard tunings, I just figured an A was an A and a C was a C and that's how it was. The idea of there being different options didn't even exist as a concept to me.

[Ducky123]

I will agree with this. I think it's pretty safe to say that most people who haven't studied music wouldn't even be aware of the fact that this debate exists or would ever have a concept of "standard tuning" in their minds. I know until I was exposed to the idea of standard tunings, I just figured an A was an A and a C was a C and that's how it was. The idea of there being different options didn't even exist as a concept to me.

Oh yeah. I might not be studying music - I just stumbled upon this by accident and got curious, but it's true that the general public is not aware of this - or at least only selected few people who have come across this like me