Subject: Re: Robust method of fundamental frequency estimation From: Arturo Camacho <acamacho@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 00:23:22 -0500 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Pierre, What about the lowest note in a 5-string bass B=30.9 Hz? When I hear a 5-string bass playing this note I am pretty sure I hear that pitch. One way I could prove it to myself is by playing B one octave above (B=61.8 Hz) and then B=30.9 Hz right after. I am pretty sure I would hear an interval of an octave between them (I have been musician all my life so I am pretty confident I know how an octave sounds like). Therefore, I conclude I can hear a pitch of 30.9. I guess any bass player would agree with me. Otherwise, why do they bother paying more for that extra string? Arturo > From the perceptual point of view, a 27.5-Hz fundamental frequency > is not heard as pitch. The $64K question is: how come we react to that > lowest piano key's vibrations as if they were truly conveying pitch on the > same dimension as, say, the key 2 octaves higher does? Yes, Dan is > probably right claiming that a double bass' lowest note evokes a more > purely-pitch pitch than the same note on the piano, but that E has a > frequency 1.5 times higher than the lowest A on the piano. (NB: concert > Boesendorfers descend down to the F below...) > > > Pierre > > > At 07:59 PM 1/31/2007, Dan Ellis wrote: > > >> I've always wondered why playing a bass line on the bottom octaves >> of the piano can almost never serve the same sonic role as playing the >> same bass line on a stand-up (acoustic) bass or electric bass guitar >> (I'm talking about a popular music and jazz context here). >> >> >> >> I don't know the answer, but I took the FFT of the lowest note of the >> piano from the MUMS grand piano samples; it's at: >> >> >> <http://labrosa.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/tmp/mumsPianoA0.jpg>http://labros >> a.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/tmp/mumsPianoA0.jpg >> >> Obviously this depends on recording setup etc., but there's no >> discernable energy at the fundamental, and almost none at the second >> harmonic. It's only at the 3rd harmonic (82.5 Hz nominal) and above >> that you really start to get energy. I would bet a double bass has >> better representation of lower harmonics. >> >> The plot also shows in green the expected locations of harmonics of >> 27.5 Hz. >> The piano harmonics aren't all that close, and over this range it >> doesn't look like a simple stretching either - seems like a much more >> complex pattern of per-harmonic deviations, both above and below. >> >> DAn. >> >> >> > -- __________________________________________________ Arturo Camacho PhD Student Computer and Information Science and Engineering University of Florida E-mail: acamacho@xxxxxxxx Web page: www.cise.ufl.edu/~acamacho __________________________________________________