Q+A #36 - 432hz is a sham, please don't buy into it, thanks.

Many thanks to Bloodbath and Beyond, Tiago da Silva, TheMASDrummer, thescowlingschnauzer, Benjamin Stedman, M3Z4C, hyeguitar1, The Bolan, kevs musicandstuff, Marko Perälä and Hanna Turunen for their questions!

Also to Ricardo Aldana, Tomás Borralho and Hamguy Bacon! Can’t forget them!

0:21 A response to all of the 432 feedback
4:01 Why do you use All Star in everything?
4:33 Using “sound guy” is gendered, and we should move away from the word
6:08 Your vaporwave is bad vaporwave because I don’t like it.
7:04 Performance opportunities in NYC
8:25 What are your thoughts on natural “talent”?
9:37 Government support for the arts in EU countries
10:34 Why does my complicated jazz feel “flat” when recorded, compared to simpler music?
11:37 What are the gigging opportunities like in NYC?
14:26 Is a masters degree in music worth it?
16:11 Is it necessary to own a car as a musician?
17:52 What goes into locking in with a drummer?

ADDITIONAL DEBUNKING OF 432

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Peace,
Adam

[sihplak]

10:17 - 10:32

I don't think that's necessarily any kind of justification for the situation, nor do I think that's necessarily the case. The level musicianship and musical skill may be high in the US but the issue is that there are people actively prevented from being able to be secure when going into music. For instance, I, having grown up in a household that had an income below the federal poverty line, have ended up very disadvantaged because my musical interests are in percussion and composition, where in the former I certainly don't have and for a long time won't have the money nor the available space to buy a marimba, quality drumset, vibraphone or whatever else have you, and in the latter I would not have the money to be able to, for lack of a better term, commission musicians to perform musical works I compose, which then further limits my ability to grow as a musician.

I don't think there's any kind of "give-and-take"; the United States not having arts funding combined with the severe barriers to entry due to free-market systems is dreadfully harmful and limiting, potentially stunting the growth of music and musicianship.

Also, I'm not sure how much of a factor it may be, but the whole "survivorship bias" idea might play into different mentalities of different musicians who have different levels of success in the Capitalist "free"-market structure we have. Just kind of a tangential side note here .

[Sevish]

Yeah but tuning lower really does make the music sound better. I tune A all the way down to 220 Hz.

[beatrixwickson]

I tune my A to 666hz and then play a tritone.

[superandrd]

A=432hz is actually the resonant frequency of most types of pancakes FYI

[benjaminmjones]

"You can make a religion out of this" – Bill Wurtz

[hnp]

A = F# is the best tuning. Dont let people tell you otherwise

[Todesnuss]

Vapourwave being taken seriously is almost as ridiculous as jazz becoming highly oh.

[AroldoLuvisottoNeto]

"... Everything is made up of resonance ... blalblalblalblablab " LOL I love when you do this, cracks me up every time! Great video as always!

[NintendoCapriSun]

One of my first thoughts upon recently discovering this whole phenomenon was that songs have their pitches changed all the time from speeding them up in movie trailers and (probably) on the radio as well. Never mind that having grown up with cassette tapes, you never knew what pitch you were gonna get. I could listen to a song in my Walkman, then take the tape out and play the same song on our stereo back at home and the pitch was off by as much as a whole note. I used to play some of my Mom's Carpenters 33rpm records on the 45rpm speed and man, sometimes it sounded great! While I can't speak for everyone, I definitely also don't think I'm the only one that's largely "desensitized" to pitch changes, especially if it's only a half note. People do it at karaoke all the time.

The other thing I couldn't help but think when trying to listen to some songs at 432 was that maybe part of the reason they sounded better was because I was actually paying attention to them, because I was expecting them to. I guess a large part of the theory is based on other things besides pitch, like that it coincides with universal vibrations or some such thing. Which only leads me to wonder, if that kind of thing really matters, then why has no one invented a machine that can play music and, while detecting your heart rate, always play and/or adjust songs so that they match the beat of your heart? I can't tell you how many times I've thought about that.

[VioStarclad]

"Sidewoman" also has some altogether different connotations.

[nuberiffic]

Here's a good reason why 432hz can't work the way it's proposed:

Let's say I play Mary had a little lamb in C major using A=440
According to these nutjobs, it will sound objectively better using A=432 because it is more in tune with the universe.

Ok, so I retune to A=432, but now I play the song in C#.

This would be the exact same notes as if I had tuned my A to 457.69Hz and played it in C.

So according tho their own reasoning it will simultaneously sound better AND worse.

Anyone who supports this theory only does so because they don't actually understand how music works.

[BAwesomeDesign]

The "magic bullet" that kills the 432 Hz thing is that Hz is a measurement of cycles per *second*. Seconds, as we understand, are arbitrary measurements of time based on the rotation of the earth. A "second" has no cosmic significance beyond that. Adam went over that point pretty well in the previous vid.

[Alleycat]

One of the saddest stories you'll hear.
You were commenting about how great it is when the bassist and the drummer just lock. This reminds me of a story from the band Styx. John Panazzo had failing health in the mid 90s. The band replaced him with Todd Sucherman. Chuck Panazzo (the bassist) was having a hard time locking in with Todd. Todd kept asking questions on what he could do to help and the final reply was (to paraphrase) "I don't know. I've only played with one other drummer." That's when Todd realized he wasn't just replacing a bandmate, but a family member.

[PeterJaquesMusic]

The thing that makes all the 432Hz (and related 256Hz) numerology fall apart is this: 432Hz means (exactly) "432 cycles per second." That's the definition of Hz, cycles per second. What is a second? Is it some fundamental, indivisible period of time, based on physics, like a single photon, or the charge of a single electron? NOPE. Its most exact definition is this: "9, 192, 631, 770 cycles of the radiation that gets an atom of cesium-133 to vibrate between two energy states" (via wikipedia's article "second"). THAT'S ARBITRARY, FOLKS. The second's common definition is also arbitrary: 1/86400 of a day. (86400 = 60 sec/min * 60 min/hr * 24 hr/day). Why do we divide the day into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds? No good reason, really. We just picked it at some point. And if we're talking cosmically, the Earth's day is also completely irrelevant; you think the Klingons or Martians or Wookies use the same "day"? Sure, they're probably talking about it in English, too. So for the folks who say that 256Hz is magical because it's a power of two, well, it's a power of two times a completely arbitrary constant, so... so what?

[tomforsythe]

I invented a new style of music, Monday of last week. By Friday, there were purists who insisted I had sold out.

[NaiduKa]

"As soon as you abandon scientific rigor, you cease to be a mathematician; you are a numerologist!"

[yesspazsmith]

My favorite thing about A=4XX tuning debate is that in any practical context, it rarely matters. I'll tune my bass with a tuner. Perfect. Then when I play with the piano player, well, I'll have to tune to the piano, which invariably means I have to slightly tune down. The pitch is by default arbitrary. A bass and guitar are much easier to change the tuning of than a piano, so if the piano is slightly off 432 or 440, it matters exactly not a dang bit as long as the rest of the band is tuned to it.

[t.c.bramblett]

"Numerology is no the same as mathematics"

THANK YOU for saying this.

[aydangooneratne]

16:34 I love how you read it exactly as it was written. Even the exclamation point at the end lol.

[BigDaddyWes]

I definitely use "guys" as a gender neutral word. I study audio technology in college and the few females in the program don't mind being refered to as a "sound guy." I Know this because I've literally asked them about it. Sure, it might not be PC, but if it doesn't bother the group in question, I don't see it as a problem.