Subject: Re: Pitch evoked by spectral regularity (inharmonic components) From: Martin Braun <nombraun(at)TELIA.COM> Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:28:50 +0100Chen-gia Tsai wrote: > ..... leads me to find a strange effect of pitch sensation. I wonder if this effect can be explained by any model of pitch extraction. ......... > These four tones can be heard in the file http://server37.hypermart.net/berlin-music/ex/a_500.wav. > In this file I demonstrate the pitch sensation f by pitch matching. ..... > I also synthesized files for d = 700 Hz and d = 300 Hz. The empirical equation seems to fail for d = 300 Hz (the last two tones). > http://server37.hypermart.net/berlin-music/ex/a_700.wav > http://server37.hypermart.net/berlin-music/ex/a_300.wav > > I cannot explain this unexpected pitch sensation and the empirical equation ..... In your sound files you do not present pitch comparisons but melody comparisons. After four inharmonic complex sounds, a, b, c, and d, you present four harmonic sounds A, B, C, B. Instead of a sound comparison a-A, b-B, c-C, d-D you present a melody comparison abcd-ABCD. Careful listening shows that the pseudo pitches of a, b, c, d do not match the pitches of A, B, C, D. For the sound files (2) and (3) even the melody matching fails: up and down motions of the pseudo-pitch melodies do not match those of the pitch melodies. The pseudo pitches of your examples cannot be predicted by any general formula. They are no f0 pitches, but global perceptional estimates based on spectral power distribution. Such pseudo pitches could best be called timbre height. Harvey Holmes wrote: > I believe that your observations may be well explained by Terhardt's > virtual pitch theory, This theory does not explain any pitch. It is anatomically and physiologically unrealistic, and the speed of f0 perception excludes any model of spectral pattern matching: Patterson RD, Peters RW, Milroy R (1983) Threshold duration for melodic pitch. In: R Klinke, W Hartmann (Eds) Hearing - Physiological Bases and Psychophysics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 321-325. Martin ------------------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klassbol Sweden e-mail: nombraun(at)telia.com web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm