Re: [1/32 of tone]

motoco@netvision.net.il wrote:

in my violin i can recognize ad play a intervals of 1/32 of tone what the
limit of the human ear?

A very good ear can discriminate about 1/200 of a tone (one cent) in the
middle of the pitch range - from about 200 to 400 Hz.

Fred Reinagel

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Fred Reinagel wrote,

>A very good ear can discriminate about 1/200 of a tone (one cent) in the
>middle of the pitch range - from about 200 to 400 Hz.

That's the "just noticable difference" for harmonic intervals -- in other
words, you can sometimes detect a 1-cent change against a drone. If there is
no drone, the just noticable difference for pitch is about 8 cents.

>The source for my above assertion is _Psychology of Music_ by Carl Seashore,
>pp. 56-62, McGraw-Hill 1938. First, he defines the standard test for pitch
>discrimination as having a stimulus of "sound[ing] two notes, each of
which is
>one second in duration but differing in pitch and separated by a very short
>interval of time". He cites a study by Strucker, Zsch. Sinnesphysiol., XLII,
>1908, where the pitch discrimination of 16 professional musicians in the
Royal
>Opera in Vienna was measured (at 435 Hz). Four of the subjects discriminated
>less than one cent, and five others within two cents (one cent at 435 Hz is
>very nearly 0.25 Hz). Figure 1, page 60, also shows that pitch
discrimination
>is actually about twice as fine at 2000 Hz as for 435 Hz.

Fred, do you know if this was done with pure tones, or...?