pitch display

Question

Audition spectral frequency and pitch seem to be pretty bad at identifying the correct octave of low bass guitar notes. The open E on a four string bass guitar is 41 Hz, the lowest G is 49 Hz. These correspond to E1 and G1 of a piano-based pitch nomenclature (used in the scale of Spectral Pitch view). But when I analyze a bass guitar part I often see the ‘main’ (most powerful) notes are indicated as E2 and G2 in frequency and pitch spectra, even though, for sure, E1 and G1 are the notes being played on the guitar. Sometimes the E1 is virtually invisible, even though it is certainly the low open E string being struck. Certainly a bass parts can have a considerable amount of upper harmonics, (eg a Rickenabcker bass using roundwound strings) but Audition is completely failing to indicate the correct octave of the actual struck note. I have tried increasing the spectral resolution, even at maximum it’s getting the octave wrong.

Is this a known issue? AI tells me that Audition spectral analyses aren’t as good at low frequencies, but I can’t find discussion of it here.

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

It is quite normal for instruments like bass guitars to have very little of what you might think of as the ‘fundamental’ frequency showing in an analysis, so I wouldn’t read too much into that in itself. It is also true that lower frequency notes have to last longer than higher frequency ones for the FFT to work, and since bass guitar notes don’t tend to last that long, it’s perhaps not so surprising that the lower frequencies are less well resolved. That’s a function of an FFT analysis, and not an Audition issue as such.

And that’s the reason that there’s no discussion, because it’s not actually an issue; you’re up against the Laws of Physics.

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