Subject: Why it has to be played loud From: Brian Gygi <bgygi@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:52:40 +0000 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>----=_vm_0011_W4684118692_3936_1285347160 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Lazlo, I know from my experience as a "rock" musician that there are certain amp= lifiers (Mesa Boogie, Gallien-Kruger and Marshall seem to be the best exa= mples) which sound their best when the gain is nearly at full. The harmon= ics are richer, and there is an edge to the sound that is just not presen= t at lower settings. In fact, one G-K amp I had sounded fabulous right be= fore it caught on fire (really). I don't know if this is a conscious engi= neering design (I suspect so) but I have found it's pretty reliable. That= 's why the joke about "turning the amp to 11" in Spinal Tap had such reso= nance. Brian Gygi, Ph.D. Speech and Hearing Research Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System 150 Muir Road Martinez, CA 94553 (925) 372-2000 x5653 -----Original Message----- From: Laszlo Toth [mailto:tothl@xxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 12:28 AM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Hearing Loss "False Positives" On Thu, 23 Sep 2010, reinifrosch@xxxxxxxx wrote:> Old guys with undamag= ed hair cells have the advantage that they can fully> enjoy classical ton= al music with its change from dissonant to consonant> chords and back. Ac= cording to the Helmholtz consonance theory that> change is due to the pre= sence or absence of beats generated by pairs of> partial tones of almost = equal frequencies. These partials tend to be> soft, and their frequencies= tend to be high.Do you know the answer to the opposite: why is rock musi= c more enjoyableloud? I think that it would be important to understand. L= aszlo Toth Hungarian Academy of Sciences * Research Group on Artificial I= ntelligence * "Failure only begins e-mail: tothl@xxxxxxxx * when y= ou stop trying" http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~tothl * ----=_vm_0011_W4684118692_3936_1285347160 Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <html><div><font face=3D"Verdana" size=3D"2"><br>Lazlo,<br><br>I know fro= m my experience as a "rock" musician that there are certain amplifiers (M= esa Boogie, Gallien-Kruger and Marshall seem to be the best examples) whi= ch sound their best when the gain is nearly at full. The harmonics = are richer, and there is an edge to the sound that is just not present at= lower settings. In fact, one G-K amp I had sounded fabulous right = before it caught on fire (really). I don't know if this is a consci= ous engineering design (I suspect so) but I have found it's pretty reliab= le. That's why the joke about "turning the amp to 11" in Spinal Tap= had such resonance. <br> </font></div> Brian Gygi, Ph.D. <br> Speech and Hearing Research <br> Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System <br> 150 Muir Road <br> Martinez, CA 94553 <br> (925) 372-2000 x5653<div><font face=3D"Verdana" size=3D"2" color=3D"#0000= ff"></font> </div> <blockquote style=3D"border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 255); padding-left:= 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><font face=3D"Tahoma" size=3D= "2">-----Original Message-----<br><b>From:</b> Laszlo Toth [mailto:tothl@xxxxxxxx= INF.U-SZEGED.HU]<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, September 24, 2010 12:28 AM<br><= b>To:</b> AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Hearing Loss "F= alse Positives"<br><br></font>On Thu, 23 Sep 2010, reinifrosch@xxxxxxxx= wrote: > Old guys with undamaged hair cells have the advantage that they can = fully > enjoy classical tonal music with its change from dissonant to conson= ant > chords and back. According to the Helmholtz consonance theory that > change is due to the presence or absence of beats generated by pairs= of > partial tones of almost equal frequencies. These partials tend to be= > soft, and their frequencies tend to be high. Do you know the answer to the opposite: why is rock music more enjoyable loud? I think that it would be important to understand. Laszlo Toth Hungarian Academy of Sciences * Research Group on Artificial Intelligence * "Failure only begins e-mail: tothl@xxxxxxxx * when you stop trying" http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~tothl * </blockquote></html> ----=_vm_0011_W4684118692_3936_1285347160--