Difference Tone


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difference tone

[′dif·rəns ‚tōn]
(acoustics)
A combination tone whose frequency equals the difference of the frequencies of the pure tones producing it.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Difference Tone

 

a combination tone of frequency ω1 - ω2 that arises in a nonlinear acoustic system when two sound waves of frequencies ω1 and ω2, respectively, act on the system.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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In Example 10, the three-stave system shows from top to bottom: the partials, the generative pitches, and the difference tones. The generative pitches are labelled with circled letters, which are used to show how the difference tones were calculated and the harmonic relationship between the generative pitches and the partials.
The arrows in Example 10 show that the introduction of new pitches is gradually reduced since partials and difference tones are increasingly used as generative pitches in subsequent sections.
As indicated by the following basic equation, the frequencies present in an FM spectrum are all summation and difference tones between the carrier and modulating frequencies:
Example 13 shows the summation and difference tones resulting from the preceding formula.
EXAMPLE 13: SUMMATION AND DIFFERENCE TONES CALCULATED WITH THE FM FORMULA
Introduction to the pitch organization of French spectral music

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