Black Hole Sun tuning mystery solved!

[LowNloud1]

My band has been playing Black Hole Sun.

I practice it to the studio recording but the tuning (D#, G#,C#,G#) is always off. Tonight I figured out that Soundgarden used 432hZ tuning! It is now in perfect tune!

I only recently heard of 432hZ tuning. It has various theories attached to it. "Some theorists believe that 440 Hz was designed to stimulate fear, sickness, oppression. This imposed frequency was introduced as the standard frequency in 1940 in the US." (Now I know what caused COVID!!!)

It is supposed to be more harmonic and pleasant than 440hZ. It is supposed to help your Chakra or Shakra, and stuff like that.

Just wanted to share....

 

[Spidey2112]

One of my guitarist buddies claimed a tab he had found for this exact song (in a popular guitar publication) was absolutely and terribly wrong...

... now I'm wondering if he paid attention to tuning details? Actual bad notation, or user error?

 

[Phe]

Thinking man's bass player Adam Neely has couple of videos debunking this A=432 nonsense. I don't dispute the original post, Soundgarden may have used that tuning, but that harmonic and pleasant sounding thing is bs.

And

 

[LBS-bass]

Yep, I always had to tune down to play along when I was learning it, so I'd save it for the last part of personal practice. I tuned to it by ear but I figured it was probably 432, since that's the folklore everyone was subscribing to when things were tuned low. It's enough of a pain to have to retune but it's worse when you have to recalibrate your tuner.

 

[lark_z]

Re- practicing along with the recording. You can shift the pitch using software, like Audacity and then save that modified mp3. Lot more handy than retuning.

 

[LBS-bass]

Re- practicing along with the recording. You can shift the pitch using software, like Audacity and then save that modified mp3. Lot more handy than retuning.

I find needing to do either to be equally annoying, but retuning only takes me a few seconds whereas bringing the song into my DAW and doing all the other stuff seems more complicated. But if I weren't fairly good at hearing pitches that would be a good solution, and I'd only have to do it once.

 

[Spectrum]

I think Mystery Achiever by The Pretenders uses this tuning as well. At least I know I have to back off my tuning keys a bit to get close, which is annoying because I don't think their their other hit songs do this.

 

[bobfarabaugh]

I have found that when playing along with most songs original recordings there is no standard. Especially older recordings. Some are sharp or flat or just out of tune. I often wondered if it was always intentional or on stuff from the 70’s or older a product of recording equipment . I don’t mean the bands that have been known to drop a half step like many 80’s bands. I think every older Rolling Stones recording is either a bit sharp or just “fast”.

 

[Drifter8230]

Black Sabbaths Paranoid is tuned this way. A few Metallica and Megadeth songs as well.

Edit: I always assumed it was due to some analog to digital side effect, or something like tape speed in the studio at the time. I didn't know it was "the Devil's tuning"

 

[RattleSnack]

I have found that when playing along with most songs original recordings there is no standard. Especially older recordings. Some are sharp or flat or just out of tune. I often wondered if it was always intentional or on stuff from the 70’s or older a product of recording equipment . I don’t mean the bands that have been known to drop a half step like many 80’s bands. I think every older Rolling Stones recording is either a bit sharp or just “fast”.

I think that was mastering decision in earlier times. Musicians recorded in one, two or twelwe takes, and than one was chosen as best. Every one had some problem or error, and tempo just a bit slow or fast was the most common one (noone used click or metronom then). So, to get it just right, producer would speed up the tape, hence making recording out of tune.

 

[LBS-bass]

Older stuff was either deliberately slowed down for the benefit of the vocalist or there were discrepancies between the tape speed and the mastering speed, which create slight differences in pitch. There also were no cheap electronic tuners back then and sometimes musicians would just all tune to an instrument that may not be at concert pitch.

The A=432 folklore is much later, but I don't know when it started. I'd be surprised if that idea was around when the Pretenders recorded anything, because it seems more like a 90's era thing to me.

 

[dpaul]

I have found that when playing along with most songs original recordings there is no standard. Especially older recordings. Some are sharp or flat or just out of tune. I often wondered if it was always intentional or on stuff from the 70’s or older a product of recording equipment . I don’t mean the bands that have been known to drop a half step like many 80’s bands. I think every older Rolling Stones recording is either a bit sharp or just “fast”.

A lot of times, back in the day, musicians would just tune their instruments to the piano in the studio. If the piano was off a few cents, so would be the instruments.

 

[two fingers]

Older stuff was either deliberately slowed down for the benefit of the vocalist or there were discrepancies between the tape speed and the mastering speed, which create slight differences in pitch. There also were no cheap electronic tuners back then and sometimes musicians would just all tune to an instrument that may not be at concert pitch.

The A=432 folklore is much later, but I don't know when it started. I'd be surprised if that idea was around when the Pretenders recorded anything, because it seems more like a 90's era thing to me.

Apparently, 432 came before 440.

432 Hz Tuning: A Complete Guide

Personally, I don't care. As long as the whole band is in tune, tune to whatever makes you happy.

 

[MattZilla]

But they also tuned in minor fifths

 

[k_hardy]

Thinking man's bass player Adam Neely has couple of videos debunking this A=432 nonsense. I don't dispute the original post, Soundgarden may have used that tuning, but that harmonic and pleasant sounding thing is bs.

And

'If you believe in the healing powers of A=432Hz, then don't you don't need to worry about what's in the vaccine'

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I love the song and the band, and it's possible they used the tuning, but opening the chackra and connecting w/ the universe thing is nothing but bs IMO.

 

[LBS-bass]

Apparently, 432 came before 440.

432 Hz Tuning: A Complete Guide

Personally, I don't care. As long as the whole band is in tune, tune to whatever makes you happy.

Of course, you know that I meant on modern recordings. The point was that I don't think the Pretenders or anyone in modern music tuned this way deliberately until sometime in the 90's, but I don't know for sure.

 

[ElectroVibe]

There's a clip of Crosby and Nash where David is retuning his guitar very quickly by ear when playing a new song.

 

[sonic 7]

But they also tuned in minor fifths

What’s a minor fifth?

 

[InhumanResource]

My band has been playing Black Hole Sun.

I practice it to the studio recording but the tuning (D#, G#,C#,G#) is always off. Tonight I figured out that Soundgarden used 432hZ tuning! It is now in perfect tune!

I only recently heard of 432hZ tuning. It has various theories attached to it. "Some theorists believe that 440 Hz was designed to stimulate fear, sickness, oppression. This imposed frequency was introduced as the standard frequency in 1940 in the US." (Now I know what caused COVID!!!)

It is supposed to be more harmonic and pleasant than 440hZ. It is supposed to help your Chakra or Shakra, and stuff like that.

Just wanted to share....

Wow, I wonder if this is what led to the reptilian implementation of 5G.