FW: Sethares algorithm

-----Original Message-----
From: William Sethares [mailto:sethares@...]
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 3:20 PM
To: PErlich@...
Cc: sethares@...
Subject: RE: Sethares algorithm

surely we must be using our numbers to mean loudness,
which is normally measured in dB, with respect to
some arbitrary point at the threshold of hearing...
youre right that we cant be adding negative "loudnesses"
but I do agree that there is a scaling issue here...

Im not sure what the best "zero-point" is.
Maybe zero should be equated to the noise floor?
Now I understand why you refrenced to the smallest
partial, because in a synthetic example the noise floor
is essentially infinite?

So I guess the proper normalization would involve
equal loudnesses among the two sounds?

I hadnt realized how confusing this was!