Re: pitch of unresolved harmonics

[Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alex Galembo asked:

> Well, the bass range of a piano (and other instruments in the same
> range) is full of tones (notice: musical tones) having no resolved
> harmonics at all (27.5 -55Hz are the fundamentals in the lowest octave
> of a standard piano). What we hear then in these sounds?

Hi Alex and List,
If you build a boring e-piano where all harmonics have equal amplitudes and
equal decay patterns, you indeed have no resolved harmonics in the low bass
tones. But if you take a piano with strings, or with a digital simulation of
strings, you have a great variation of amplitudes and decay patterns across
the harmonics. In this case you always have some harmonics that are stronger
than their adjacent companions. Many of them are resolved by the auditory
system, and when the spectrally based periodicity detector in the midbrain
sums up all periods that can be detected in the spectrum of your low bass
tone, the result inevitably is the f0. Do the maths.

Martin

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Martin Braun
Neuroscience of Music
S-671 95 Klässbol
Sweden
e-mail: nombraun@post.netlink.se
web site: http://hem.netlink.se/~sbe29751/home.htm
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