Sound waves shown with wrong frequency in Frequency plugin

I noticed that sound wave peaks shown in the Frequency plugin were off from the expected pitch. I recorded the sound from a 440 “A” tuning fork, played it through the Frequency plugin and that peak was shown at 398 Hz instead of 440. I re-recorded that playback through my Zoom H6 and found that the resultant peak was still assigned a frequency of 398 Hz so the frequency is not off because of the recording process. I did the same thing with a 329.6 Hz “E” tuning fork and Frequency again showed a 42 Hz error assigning this peak a value of 298 Hz. Can the plugin be recalibrated?

I can’t reproduce this (using a 440 Hz generated by WaveLab)

32 Hz differenz… so it’s not a fixed value, it could be a sample rate mismatch?

Reading here with a 440 Hz done with WL 11 Pro and Frequency plugin
is 440.6 Hz and with Global Analysis is 440.01 Hz.

regards S-EH

Sven and Steffen,

Thank you both for responding quickly. Attached are screen images showing results from checking my original Zoom H6 440Hz tuning fork recording (48K-24bit) and an iPhone recording of my 440Hz tuning fork. I don’t know the sample rate or bit depth of my iPhone 13 recording.

In both cases you see from the screen captures that Global Analysis on Wavelab 11 correctly analyzes the frequency (439.3 and 440.01). However in both cases the Frequency plugin on my Wavelab 11 analyzes the frequency of both recording of the tuning fork as 398 Hz.

This suggests it’s not a sampling mismatch or a problem with my sound card, but something to do with the Frequency plugin on my computer (see below). I’m hoping there is a fix for this … maybe a reinstallation of the Frequency plugin?

Thank you,

Steve Bicknese

The global analysis function is an average function, while the Frequency plugin is an instantaneous function. You can’t draw conclusions by comparing them. Instead, use other tools, such as Supervision, the WaveLab FFT meter, the spectrogram…

PG,

Thanks for the input. I’ve now tried using the SuperVision tool on my 440 Hz tuning fork recording and with the TestGenerator set to 440. In both cases I get a peak that is accurately labeled 438-442 (see Screenshots 77 and 80). I also used Frequency with the TestGenerator set to 440 Hz and get a peak labeled 398 (Screenshot 79). Screenshot 78 shows an enlarged picture of the waveform from my tuning fork recording … pretty clean sine wave. I guess I don’t understand why the instantaneous function of Frequency would measure my clean sine wave recording and the TestGenerator signal at 440 Hz as being 398 Hz. I hope there is a simple answer.

Thank you,

Steve

Please give me your file so that I can reproduce your case.

PG, Philippe I presume,

Attached is the Zoom H6 recording (48K-24bit) and the iPhone mp4 recording of my 440 Hz tuning fork.

Thank you so much for your help. I hope this is just something I’m doing wrong.

Steve

(Attachment A 440 Hz iPhone.m4a is missing)

(Attachment A 440 Hz.wav is missing)

PG,

I sent the WAVE and mp4 file to you but got this message back from Steinberg Forums steinberg@discoursemail.com

Unfortunately some attachments in your email message to [“incoming+4dd3aa4bd1aebf37bac55ff1a876252e@steinberg.discoursemail.com”] (titled RE: [Steinberg Forums] [WaveLab] Sound waves shown with wrong frequency in Frequency plugin) were rejected.

Details:
A 440 Hz iPhone.m4a: Sorry, the file you are trying to upload is not authorized (authorized extensions: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, heic, heif, dorico, pdf, zip, mp3, mp4, cpr, npr, lua, vstpreset, xml, dmp, crash, mid, ips, midiremote).
A 440 Hz.wav: Sorry, the file you are trying to upload is not authorized (authorized extensions: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, heic, heif, dorico, pdf, zip, mp3, mp4, cpr, npr, lua, vstpreset, xml, dmp, crash, mid, ips, midiremote).

If you believe this is an error, contact a staff member.

Now what?

Steve

image002.jpg

Use wetransfer

or use the browser…
e-mail is just a notification tool in this case…

Thank you Steffen,

I hope Philippe got my audio files, but I will use the website or my Soundcloud site as necessary.

Thank you all for being so helpful.

Steve

Alameda, California

image002.jpg

I did not get anything.

To all,

Since directly emailing of my WAV and mp4 files was blocked, Philippe suggested using WeTransfer to send the two files. I did that and got the response below. Let me know if this was successful. If not, I could use the website as suggested or I could upload the files to my Soundcloud account and then send you a link.

Thanks again,

Steve Bicknese

Alameda, California

I don’t see any response.

I did send the WAV and mp4 audio recordings of the 440 Hz tuning fork via WeTransfer. It sounds like you don’t see that. I tried the Upload function to attach the mp4 and WAV file to this response, but it won’t allow that. I guess I’ll do the Soundcloud upload and email you the link.
Steve

Here is the Soundcloud link.
https://soundcloud.com/pacfic_edge_voices/sets/frequency-test-audio-files/s-hOy8BQmujxc?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Please confirm if this worked or not.
Steve Bicknese

I can play the sounds, but I can’t download them…

Send me the link in a PM.