Re: Gaussian vs uniform noise audibility

[Bob Masta <audio@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear list:

Back at the end of January I posted a note here regarding my
observation that there was no audible difference between
Gaussian and uniform noise. At that time my DaqGen software
had problems generating narrow distributions, so my findings
only applied to distributions whose tails went out to about
4.35 deviations (user Standard Deviation setting of 1.00 or
more); narrower distributions whose tails extended farther
were audibly different from uniform noise, due to this
problem.

The lastest version of DaqGen, v1.20 (free download),  has
corrected this difficulty, and allows the tails to extend
out to 8.7 deviations (user Standard Deviation of 0.50 or
less).  At a sample rate of 48000 Hertz, that would result
in peak tail samples (+/-32767 on a 16-bit system) only
about once per 45000 years. (!)

I apologize for the delay in rectifying this problem.  In
addition to developing the new wide-range algorithm, I have
added extensive signal averaging options to DaqGen,
including histograms that allow visualization of the
distribution.

As always, I would be glad to answer any questions.


Bob Masta

audioATdaqartaDOTcom