AUD · Audio tools

Note to Frequency Converter

Note
440.00 HzfrequencyA4note69MIDI note+0.0¢from equal temperament2.273 msperiod0.780 mwavelength
Octave 4 at A4 = 440 Hz
NoteFrequencyMIDIPeriodWavelength
C4261.63 Hz603.822 ms1.31 m
C#4Db4277.18 Hz613.608 ms1.24 m
D4293.66 Hz623.405 ms1.17 m
D#4Eb4311.13 Hz633.214 ms1.10 m
E4329.63 Hz643.034 ms1.04 m
F4349.23 Hz652.863 ms0.98 m
F#4Gb4369.99 Hz662.703 ms0.93 m
G4392.00 Hz672.551 ms0.88 m
G#4Ab4415.30 Hz682.408 ms0.83 m
A4440.00 Hz692.273 ms0.78 m
A#4Bb4466.16 Hz702.145 ms0.74 m
B4493.88 Hz712.025 ms0.69 m

Wavelength assumes a speed of sound of 343 m/s, dry air at 20 °C.

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Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Equal temperament divides an octave into 12 equal steps, so every frequency in the table comes from one formula: the frequency of MIDI note m is A4 multiplied by 2 to the power of (m - 69) / 12. A4 is MIDI note 69, an octave is a doubling, and a semitone is the twelfth root of 2, about 1.0595.

Both directions

Note to hertz takes a note name and octave and gives the frequency. Hertz to note takes a measured frequency and returns the nearest note plus the distance to it in cents, which is the reading a tuner shows.

A cents value near zero means the frequency lands on the note. Near 50 it sits halfway between two notes, and the label flips to the other one past that point.

The tuning reference

A4 sets everything else. 440 Hz has been the international standard since 1955, though orchestras in continental Europe often play at 442 or 443, and historically informed ensembles use 415 for baroque repertoire.

Changing the reference moves every note by the same ratio, so intervals hold. That also means a sample recorded at A4 = 442 needs 7.85 cents of correction, not a different note.

MIDI numbers

MIDI note numbers run from 0 to 127, C-1 to G9. They are integers, so they carry no tuning information at all: the same note number sounds at a different frequency depending on what the instrument’s reference is set to.

Period and wavelength

Period is 1000 divided by the frequency, in milliseconds. It is the number to reach for when setting a delay or a filter time in relation to a pitch: a single cycle of A2 at 110 Hz is 9.09 ms.

Wavelength is the speed of sound divided by the frequency. A 50 Hz tone is 6.9 m long, which is longer than most rooms, and that is why the lowest octave of a mix behaves so differently in a small space than the rest of it. Half a wavelength across a room dimension is where the first mode sits.

Example: reading a bass part

An open low E on a bass guitar is 41.20 Hz, MIDI note 28, E1. Its second harmonic is 82.41 Hz, which is where the note usually reads as pitched, and the fundamental is mostly felt. A high-pass at 30 Hz leaves both alone. A high-pass at 60 Hz sits above the fundamental of every note below B1, which is most of the bass part.

Frequently Asked Questions

It converts between note names and frequencies in equal temperament. There is nothing to upload. Pick a note and octave to read its frequency, or type a frequency to get the nearest note and how far off it sits in cents.

This tool uses scientific pitch notation, where middle C is C4 and MIDI note 60. Yamaha instruments and some DAWs label the same key C3, so a part written for C3 in one program can arrive an octave off in another. The MIDI number is the value that never moves.

One hundredth of a semitone. A tuner reading 5 cents flat means the pitch sits 5 hundredths of a semitone below the note, which most listeners cannot hear on a single note and most can hear as beating against a second one.

Every note moves down by the same ratio, about 31.8 cents, which is a third of a semitone. Nothing about the intervals changes. Period instruments are a separate case: baroque pitch is often A4 = 415 Hz, roughly a semitone below the modern standard.

It uses 343 m/s, the speed of sound in dry air at 20 °C. Sound travels about 0.6 m/s faster for every degree warmer, so a hall at 30 °C shifts the figure by around 2%. It is close enough for room modes and microphone spacing, not for measurement work.

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