Subject: Re: Auditory wheel From: Dan Stowell <dan.stowell@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:47:25 +0200 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Michael H. Coen wrote: > On 3/18/2010 6:42 PM, Gossmann, Joachim wrote: >> Hi - >> it seems a fairly direct auditory equivalent of a color wheel is the phenomenon of "Shepard Tones" that loop in the frequency domain. >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone >> >> >> Best, >> Joachim > > I considered Shepard tones in rhythm as well as Risset's variants in > pitch. From a preliminary trial, it seemed difficult for subjects to > determine consistent perceptual boundaries in the cycle. > > We're interested where people innately segregate sensory inputs along > the wheel, be it in vision or audition. With color, these boundary > determinations are quite repeatable. With sound, Shepard tones seemed > to make the problem quite difficult; it may simply be, however, that > subjects were given insufficient exposure. You said you don't want learned/culture effects, but isn't it true that the "repeatable boundary determinations" in colour are culturally determined? I remember reading some pop-anthropology about how different cultures had different palettes, and that although some categories (red, black, white) are very broadly used, many categorical judgments (e.g. red-vs-orange) are highly culture-bound. A quick and unprincipled literature search seems to confirm this, but I'm neither an anthropologist nor a colourist so am ready to be corrected. But I'm having trouble imagining a continuous timbre wheel which people might 'innately' categorise, and I wonder whether it works even in the visual analogy. Dan -- Dan Stowell Centre for Digital Music Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road, London E1 4NS http://www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/digitalmusic/people/dans.htm http://www.mcld.co.uk/