Subject: Re: pitch of unresolved harmonics From: "Alex Galembo, PhD" <alex(at)SPEECH.KTH.SE> Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 15:46:00 +0200To Martin Brown's message: But "boring" bass tones consisting of several harmonics with equal amplitudes produce pitch sensation. I think we just deal here with a temporal rather than spectral perception. This is further confirmed by another observatiion: timbre of these tones depends on starting phase relations between harmonics. And: I have not found any data on the critical bandwidth in the range below 100 Hz. And a question: Does the contradiction between Zwicker and Moore data of a critical bandwidth in the low frequency range suggests that the Zwicker data are wrong? Alex Martin Braun wrote: > 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 > > ------------------------------------------- > 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] -- Alexander Galembo, Ph.D. Visiting researcher Dept. of Speech, Music and Hearing Royal Inst. of Technology Stockholm, Sweden Tel. 46-8-7907856 Fax 46-8-7907854 E-mail: alex(at)speech.kth.se WEB: http://www.geocities.com/galembo_alex/