Fundamental frequency
The
fundamental frequency of a periodic
signal is the inverse of the
pitch period length. The pitch period is, in turn, the smallest repeating unit of a signal. One pitch period thus describes the periodic signal completely. The significance of defining the pitch period as the
smallest repeating unit can be appreciated by noting that two or more concatenated pitch periods form a repeating pattern in the signal. However, the concatenated signal unit obviously contains redundant information.
See also