Combination Tone - Resultant Tone

In pipe organs, a resultant tone is the sound of a combination of organ pipes that allows the listener to perceive a lower pitch.

This is done by having two pipes, one pipe of the note being played, and another harmonically related, typically at its fifth, being sounded at the same time. The result is a pitch at a common subharmonic of the pitches played (one octave below the first pitch when the second is the fifth, 3:2, two octaves below when the second is the major third, 5:4). This effect is useful especially in the lowest ranks of the pipe organ where cost or space could prohibit having a rank of such low pitch. For example, a 64' pipe would be costly and take up at least 32' of space (if capped) for each pipe. Using a resultant tone for such low pitches would eliminate the cost and space factor, but would not sound as full as a true 64' pipe.

This effect is most often used in the lowest octave of the organ only.