Reply to François Laferrière

> Message: 19
> Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 20:33:57 -0000
> From: "paulerlich" <paul@stretch-music.com>
> Subject: reply to François Laferrière
>
> --- In tuning@y..., LAFERRIERE François <francois.laferriere@c...>
> wrote:
>
>> It is worth to be noted that those measurement issues are not simply
>> instrument artifact: it is a fundamental theoretical fact that for ANY
>> time->frequency domain transformation, the resolution in frequency cannot
>> exceed 1/WS where WS is the window size. I doubt that the integration of the
>> signal performed by the cochlea and the central nervous system exceeds by
>> much one seconds, so I doubt that we can, by ear, make the difference for
>> less than a few cents.
>
> i made this argument a few months ago here -- search the archives
> for 'classical uncertainty principle'. the argument was not at all
> well received here, and one of the counteraguments involved the
> (true) fact that the human auditory system uses mechanisms other than
> position on the cochlea to make frequency determinations.
> nevertheless, i agree that it is an important argument.

Also, keep in mind that the ear likely hears harmonic combinations of
pitches differently than it hears single frequencies. Consider that those
many of us without pitch recognition seem to get by very well using our
sense of relative pitch, whether or not we recognize "frequencies."

In my experience, the discrimination of harmonic relationships is far more
sensitive than simple pitch discrimination. I think I demonstrated that in
reporting my response to the single-pitch jerries in one of my recent posts.

Jerry