[no subject]

[David Huron - Conrad Grebel <dhuron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Subject:  RE: dissonance/roughness calculations

Regarding sensory dissonance calculations, let me draw your attention
to a recent (lengthy) review of the consonance literature by Donald
Greenwood: "Critical bandwidth and consonance in relation to cochlear
frequency-position coordinates."  Hearing Research, 1991, 54 (2), 164-208.

Greenwood's review notwithstanding, I'm starting to agree with Joos Vos
that there is something seriously wrong with the current view of sensory
dissonance.  For example, there are markedly divergent claims as to the
frequency separation (in CBWs) that leads to maximum dissonance (compare
Plomp and Levelt, Greenwood, and Kameoka and Kuriyagawa -- after they
are normalized to the same scale).  Vos' own carefully gathered data only
add to the uncertainty.

There is even considerable misunderstanding of the historical origins
of the standard view.  For example, the origin of the tonal-consonance/
critical-band hypothesis is universally attributed to Plomp and Levelt
(1965).  However, the hypothesis had already been proposed, tested, and
published by Greenwood in 1961 (see especially JASA Vol. 33, p.1352,
Fig. 10).  Although Plomp and Levelt cited Greenwood's 1961 work in
their 1962 ICA paper, they regrettably failed to cite his work in their
subsequent (and influential) 1965 JASA publication.  Moreover, I was
amazed to discover that Greenwood's 1961 equation for the size of the
critical band is virtually identical to the Moore and Glasberg's ERB-rate
published 20 years later.  Plus ca change ...

David Huron

---------------------------------
References:

D. Greenwood, Auditory masking and the critical band.
JASA 1961, 33 (4), 484-502.

D. Greenwood, Critical bandwidth and the frequency coordinates of the
basilar membrane.  JASA 1961, 33 (4), 1344-1356.

D. Greenwood, A cochlear frequency-position function for several species
-- 29 years later.  JASA 1990, 87 (6), 2592-2605.