Is there considerable phase locking up to 6 kHz?

[chen-gia tsai <tsai.cc@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

I am working on the pitch perception of music sounds with dominant upper odd-numbered harmonics.
Using synthesized complex tones with unresolved odd-numbered harmonics, I find that temporal cues for pitch extraction appear maintained in the range of 4 - 6 kHz. Is this effect against the current models of pitch extraction?

I use three stimuli:
A={400*9, 400*11, 400*13} Hz
B={400*11, 400*13, 400*15} Hz
C={400*13, 400*15, 400*17} Hz

If we listen to [ABC], we can hear an ascending melody, although the musical pitches appear somewhat ambiguous. The frequency difference of adjacent components is 800 Hz in these complex tones. As they do not have the same pitch of 800 Hz, the pitch could not be extracted in terms of the temporal envelop of adjacent components.

Pitch models based on autocorrelation analysis or coincidence detection (Shamma and Klein: The case of the missing pitch templates: How harmonic templates emerge in the early auditory system. JASA 107:2631-44) could explain the multi-pitch effect of tones composed of upper odd-numbered harmonics, if temporal cues for pitch extraction were assumed to be maintained in the range of 4 - 6 kHz.
This finding prompts the question: is there considerable phase locking up to 6 kHz?

For more audio files demonstrating the multi-pitch effect of tones composed of upper odd-numbered harmonics, see
http://www.yogimont.net/jia/nasality_hollowness/multi-pitch.html


Any comment is much appreciated.

Best,
Chen-Gia Tsai

______________________________________
Chen-Gia Tsai
Ph.D Musicology, Humboldt University Berlin
http://www.yogimont.net/jia/
tsai.cc@lycos.com


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