this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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Are Hz and cents/semitones readily convertible to and from each other?

Is there a formula?

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[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 32 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Sir, this is No Stupid Questions. You can't just ask a question so advanced that I literally have no core concept what you're even asking.

Questions for this sub are like "Should I drink bleach? Is it safe?"

The answer is no.

Your question......uhhhhhh.......

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

It carried that risk in my view because i know so little about frequencies and pitch and hz and all this stuff so for all i knew, it could have been the same as the ratio of SchruteBucks to StanleyNickels

[–] traceur201@piefed.social 30 points 21 hours ago

Cents are a measure of difference between two frequencies and can't be converted directly to hz on its own.

An initial frequency in hz and an offset in cents can be used to calculate a second frequency in hz, such as in your initial question. Using the formula from wikipedia f1 * 2^(c/1200) = f2, we get 1hz * 2^(-100/1200) = .9439hz. Note that +1200 cents is double (2^1) and -1200 cents is half (2^-1) the original frequency

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 10 points 18 hours ago

TIL there's not a question too dumb for this sub, but there IS a question too smart.

[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago

Question is not answerable without knowing the tuning system and reference frequency for A4.

[–] dariusj18@lemmy.world 21 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Given a note, ex. A4 is 440 Hz, moving up an octave, or 12 semitones, is doubling the Hz. You can figure out the Hz from the base note by multiplying it by 2^(x/12) where x is the number of semitones you want add.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 22 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Showerthought: What's the step between a C and the C# one octave higher? A Baker's Octave.

I'll show myself out...

[–] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

Showerthought: mf is mezzo-forte. ff shouldn't be fortissimo, it should be fezzo-forte.

[–] raynethackery@lemmy.world 10 points 20 hours ago

Throws piano.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

0.9438Hz, i.e. 1*(2^(-100/1200)) IIRC.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

How many semitones can you subtract till its much closer to zero?

[–] traceur201@piefed.social 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

12 semitones to .5hz, 24to .25hz, 36 to .125hz

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Oh yeah haha, duh, its all coming back to me now for this

So essentially halving or douing it is always 1/2 or 2* right?

So if i want to 1/3 1hz, it would be like -19.19 ish ?

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 5 points 20 hours ago

I got it wrong, and it would have been funnier as a correction if I had spelled it correctly.

One of Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion states that we cannot move from A to B because first we must move halfway there. Then we must move half of the remaining distance. This continues infinitely, with us never being able to arrive at the destination because we must first close the distance by half.

Such is it when we try to get from 1 Hz to 0 Hz by reducing by semitones.