Talk:Octave

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Notes "in an octave"[edit]

This sentence confuses me: "Notes in an octave 'ring' together, adding a pleasing sound to music." What does it mean for notes to be "in an octave"? Does that mean the notes are one octave apart? This phrase sounds like music jargon, used without explanation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.240.255.24 (talk) 13:00, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds to me as if the word "relationship" was accidentally omitted after the word "octave". Your edit seems equally suitable.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 17:16, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Octave equivalency?[edit]

This article includes a section on Octave equivalency. The term "equivalency" seems to me somewhat inappropriate: I thought that "equivalency" meant something like "equal validity", say between two diplomas delivered in different regimes or different countries. I would think "equivalence" more appropriate, meaning "equal value". A quick search on Google shows that "octave equivalence" is almost ten times as frequent as "octave equivalency", and certainly more than that on Scholar Google. I am not fluent enough in English to decide, but I think that the term should be changed. It appears on several places in the article, also outside the specific section. — Hucbald.SaintAmand (talk) 21:08, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

My dictionary says equivalency is another word for equivalence. But no objection from me if you want to change it to the more common term. Dicklyon (talk) 21:25, 24 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I do not object either, but advise checking with a musician before relying on us engineers. Perhaps it is a musical term? Dondervogel 2 (talk) 05:17, 25 July 2019 (UTC)![reply]

"Octave equivalence" is the term normally employed in English-language music theory writing.�—Jerome Kohl (talk) 16:44, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Starting note[edit]

It should say that ocatives start at C, and not A. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.96.131 (talk) 13:18, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Frequency level?[edit]

See this diff. It appears that frequency level is a term of art similar to the more widely familiar power level, expressed in decibels. If this bit of content is to be kept, it could be clarified, and might fit better in the section on octave bands.

Aside from that, the prose of the "Explanation and definition" could be tightened. I'm willing to have a go at that, and will wait a while to see what others want to do with the frequency level stuff. Just plain Bill (talk) 14:57, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

As a matter of fact, I also wondered about the footnote that reads "ANSI/ASA S1.1-2013 Acoustical Terminology". I had a look at that. Definition 3.05 of ASA S1.1 says : "Frequency level. Logarithm of the ratio of a given frequency to an appropriate reference value. The base of the logarithm and reference value should be indicated." There are three annotations, describing what the unit of frequency level is in logarithms of different bases, and Annotation 1 indeed states: "If the base of the logarithm is 2, the unit of frequency level is the octave." This in no way defines the octave, it merely defines the unit of frequency level in the case of log₂. The other two annotations add that the unit would be the semitone for a logarithm of base 2^1/12 and the decade for a logarithm of base 10.

The definition of the octave is given in 12.22: "The interval between two tones whose frequencies (or fundamental frequencies) stand in the ratio of 2:1." The fact that it becomes the unit of frequency level for a logarithm of base 2 is but a consequence of this definition. And the statement under discussion is fully redundant both with the lede and with the formula that comes before, "Number of octaves = log₂(f₂/f₁)". I therefore delete it. — Hucbald.SaintAmand (talk) 15:50, 10 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Question on term definition and usage (reposting)[edit]

Reposting here on behalf of 188.120.128.39:

This paragraph uses a whole new definition of octave (the very entry it is describing) in the parenthesis - instead of an interval, it is used here as a position marker for the "height" of the pitch. This may be a certain use for the term but it is different than the one explained before and is used without warning. Is an octave something other than an interval? This sentence seem to suggest it is, so it must be explained prior.

ComplexRational (talk) 22:59, 18 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is a good remark. Musicologists probably unduly use the word "octave" to denote what may more properly be termed the "register." — Hucbald.SaintAmand (talk) 06:46, 19 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]