Re: [RE: [1/32 of tone]]

"Paul H. Erlich" <PErlich@Acadian-Asset.com> wrote:
>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 Reinagel

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