TONE

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Acoustics / Psychoacoustics / Music

A single sound of definite, recognizable PITCH. It also refers to the SONORITY or the quality of TIMBRE of a particular sound or sounding instrument (e.g. "the tone of the cello"). In British musical usage the word is also employed to refer to the INTERVAL of a major SECOND.

In ACOUSTICS, the word is usually understood to mean a specific kind of sound with a FUNDAMENTAL plus (except in the case of a SINE TONE) its PARTIALs.

See: BEATS, COMBINATION TONES, COMPLEX TONE, SIMPLE TONE. Compare: CLICK, DRONE, HUM, NOTE, OVERTONE.

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