Subject: Re: pitch of unresolved harmonics From: Martin Braun <nombraun(at)POST.NETLINK.SE> Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 11:31:23 +0200Alex 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 ------------------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klässbol Sweden e-mail: nombraun(at)post.netlink.se web site: http://hem.netlink.se/~sbe29751/home.htm ------------------------------------------- On the evolution of a fact in science: Stage 1 .......................... "Totally absurd stuff." Stage 2 .......................... "Interesting, but queer." Stage 3 .......................... "Correct, but unimportant." Stage 4 .......................... "I have always said this." [John BS Haldane (1892 - 1964), biologist]