Harmonics

Collection guide

Collection context

What you hear

Each listen is one tone with its own lower octaves beneath it. An octave below a tone is exactly half its frequency, so 528 Hz sits over 264, 132 and 66 Hz, and the lines blend into one full voice rather than a chord. Every tone keeps up to three octaves, none lower than 60 Hz, so the lowest tones carry fewer, and each line is set to sound as loud as the others.

The slow drift

The weight moves slowly round the lines: about every 24 seconds it passes from the tone down through each octave and back to the tone, each line rising and falling by about 8 dB in its turn. Nothing pulses or beats. The blend simply leans one way, then the next.

Tones together

12 listens hold tones together, with no octaves added: 174, 417 and 741 Hz; 285, 528 and 852 Hz; 396, 639 and 963 Hz; 432 and 528 Hz; 144.72 and 396 Hz; 888 and 183.58 Hz; 183.58 and 963 Hz; 126.22 and 528 Hz; 126.22 and 417 Hz; 963 and 172.06 Hz; 141.27 and 741 Hz; and 432 and 174 Hz. Each tone takes its turn to lead, the highest first, and each listen plays on its lowest tone's page.

The same sound as the videos

Harmonics is also a new series of nine-hour videos for the Harmonance YouTube channel. Each video links to its tone's page here, where the same lines play in your browser with the same slow drift, free and with no ads. On the page Harmonics waits for you to press Play, and it keeps going for as long as you listen.

What is and is not known

Octaves are simple acoustics: a tone and the tone at half its frequency line up so closely that the ear hears them as one pitch at different heights. Claims that particular tones change the body or mind have little support in research, so the name on each tone describes the tradition behind it, not a promised result. Think of each listen as a listening experiment and notice how it sits with you. Just be curious.