432Hz

ABOUT 432Hz …

For our 2017 debut album “Tick Tock” and 2020 “Ah Yeah! – The Funky EP” we have tried stepping “outside the box”, not only musically (by fusing / crossing over between musical genres), but with the production as well: we have used a different Concert Pitch for this album: A4=432Hz. 

Some of you might have “picked something up” about this “432Hz thing” online, a tuning concept popular mostly among “New Age” and some underground producers, musicians and composers. When you browse the net you will come across a variety of blogs, websites and articles often containing facts and fiction all “mixed-up”, including proclaimed “healing powers” and claims of “Ancient origin”. If while listening to our album you see Angels coming down from the sky in a blaze of glory, or it feels like there is honey dripping into your ears, then it’s probably the spliff or mushrooms or something else you have consumed 😉 … There isn’t anything “magical” about using the 432Hz reference pitch. Roel has written some articles on this topic on his blog “Roel’s World“, for example: “432 Tuning Basics” and “What is related and what not?“. None of those often “far fetched” claims is why we chose using a lower pitch! 

So, why did we chose a lower pitch? Well, the shortest and simplest answer to that question is “it sounds better to our ears”. We have compared the 440Hz and 432Hz versions by ear on various sound systems, from PA systems to high-end Hi-Fi (using Martin Logan electrostatic speakers and others like KEF and PSB). The 432Hz exports sounded and felt more “cored” in the low-end, warmer in the mid-range and more “transparent” and “spacious” in the high-end relatively to the 440Hz exports. In case you wish to read a more detailed (technical) explanation, do read the Roel’s World article “Why using a lower pitch then the standard of A4=440Hz“.

And at the end, that’s what it is all about with music, right? How it sounds to you, what you feel? We feel we have the artistic “right” to chose for what we think and feel makes our album sound best, right? 

OUR IMPLEMENTATION

As you might have read at Roel’s World “432 Tuning Basics” already, the best implementation of 432-Tuning is using the A4=432Hz Concert Pitch in combination with Just Intonation. This though was problematic due to the limitations of some of the wind instruments (build for 440Hz) used for this album. We thus decided to record without changing the standard Concert Pitch (A4=440Hz) and temperament (12-Tone Equal Temperament) and in post production process the recorded material. We did not change the temperamental characteristics though (to prevent the appearing of undesired sonic artifacts), we only changed the speed (pitch & tempo) after the mixing stage, before the mastering stage with the high-end EVO 432.

If you have questions and like to know more, feel free to contact us!