Re: [tuning] Digest Number 1859

Hello, in the following message of the above Digest:

> Message: 8
> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 19:17:18 -0800
> From: "monz" <joemonz@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Re: The one that doesn't talk about numbers (was: JI
definitions...)
<. . . . . . .>,

where Joe responds to JGill,

commenting on the 'Timbre/Scale' issue, he says:

"<The way the human auditory system works, is turning out to
be far more complex than anyone used to think. There seem
to be all kinds of non-linearities involved, for example.
(Attending the ISMA conference in Perugia last September
was very enlightening to me in this respect.)>"

To which of the papers or discussions is that referring?

A related issue is the following. Can anyone in the group, Bill Sethares or
another, possibly react. Either from theory or experience, how should,
or do the timbre-based scales relate to the Terhardt virtual pitch <dogma>
(or <thesis> or <facts>)? Indeed, when we hear the upper steps of a
minimum-dissonance scale based on a timbre of inharmonic character, is there
any chance that we might also perceive a sort of "fundamental"? Or has our
hearing a clearly special "fit" with harmonic sounds?

By the way, many thanks to Monz from Bastille, for his recent update of the
J.I. definition. Wish I could take him up on his request for a sponsor.

Peace, love and inharmonic complexity...

Dominique Larr�

--- In tuning@y..., Dominique Larré <Dominique.Larre@w...> wrote:

> A related issue is the following. Can anyone in the group, Bill
Sethares or
> another, possibly react. Either from theory or experience, how should,
> or do the timbre-based scales relate to the Terhardt virtual pitch
<dogma>
> (or <thesis> or <facts>)? Indeed, when we hear the upper steps of a
> minimum-dissonance scale based on a timbre of inharmonic character,
is there
> any chance that we might also perceive a sort of "fundamental"?

based on my experience and familiarity with psychoacoustical research,
my answer is a resounding no.

> Or has our
> hearing a clearly special "fit" with harmonic sounds?

so it seems. this is clear from the very fact that we ascribe a single
pitch to the sensation of lots of spectral components when they form a
harmonic series, but not when they don't. although one can quibble
about the exact details of the mathematical modeling of this
phenomenon, the phenomenon itself has been demonstrated in myriad
situations. finally, the nonlinearity of the auditory system only
helps to reinforce it, as the additional frequency components all fall
within the same harmonic series if the spectrum is harmonic, but add
confusion if it isn't.

i'd be happy to discuss all this at greater length later . . . in a
bit of a rush right now.