Topic: Near frequencies and the display on analysis programs?
When I put wave files of single piano notes through different freq analysis programs, I get different results, depending on the way the program displays its results. Some programs, such as Overtone Analyzer, show a wide band of what I call "near frequencies" around each fundamental and each additional partial, indicating that many frequencies above and below the fundamental and other partials occur when a single note is struck. Other programs, such as Spear, show only one or two of these near freqs above and below each fundamental and partial. (Goldwave, on the other hand, shows a bar chart of spikes and declines).
How does what these programs show relate to the reality? When a single note is struck, are there usually 2-4 freqs on each side of the fundamental and paritals that are also given off (but some analysis programs show a continuous color band from the main freq that extends to those on either side) or are there a large number of freqs (from transwaves, sympathetic resonances from nearby strings and their partials, the detuning of unison strings, etc) given off by playing each note (but some programs simplify the display so that only those freqs above a given amplitude are displayed, and thus have separate bands)?