Subject: Re: harmonic vs. inharmonic sounds (one last time) From: Peter Lennox <P.Lennox@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:42:43 +0000 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>similarly, if you bring the partials in one by one, then waht you hear is all the individual components - you can still hear them out. If you start them together then take them out from the top, you hear a progressive darkening of timbre regards ppl Dr. Peter Lennox S.P.A.R.G. Signal Processing Applications Research Group University of Derby http://sparg.derby.ac.uk Int. tel: 1775 >>> Jan Schnupp <jan@xxxxxxxx> 03/16/07 10:58 AM >>> On 16/03/07, Kevin Austin <kevin.austin@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On reconsideration, I would reframe the question something as: > > When hearing the partials 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, do you > perceive the fundamental to be 100 Hz? Do you hear a 100 Hz component? If you play a harmonic series and the partials all come on together and are unmodulated or modulated together then you wouldn't normally hear any 'components'. The partials are strongly bound into a single buzzy sound. If you first play that harmonic series with the fundamental, and then without the fundamental then the two sounds should sound very similar in pitch but somewhat different in timbre. The really interesting thing happens if you play harmonic series with and without the fundamental repeatedly, back to back, switching the harmonic on and off every 500 ms or so. You may then observe that the fundamental 'pops out', i.e. when the fundamental is on you hear two tones (one pure tone, one complex tone), when it is off you hear only one. Well worth playing around with. Jan Best > > Kevin > -- Dr Jan Schnupp University of Oxford Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics Sherrington Building - Parks Road Oxford OX1 3PT - UK +44-1865-272513 www.oxfordhearing.com