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Musical Overtones with Karplus-Strong
One of the main characteristics of any musical sound is its pitch, or frequency. This is the sound’s number of vibrations per second in hertz (Hz). For example, the fourth string of an acoustic guitar produces a D note with a frequency of 146.83 Hz. You can approximate this sound by creating a sine wave with a frequency of 146.83 Hz on a computer, as shown in Figure 4-1.
Unfortunately, if you play this sine wave on your computer, it won’t sound anything like a guitar. Nor will it sound like a piano, or any other real-world musical instrument for that matter. What makes a computer sound so different ...
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