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-objects moving in environment (vibrating)
-causes pressure variations that are transmitted through matter (air)- can't exist in a vacuum
- these pressure variations cause sound waves that are longitudinal |
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(like shaking a string attached to a wall up and down)
-wave's amplitude is perpendicular to the waves motion (amplitude is the max height of the wave) |
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(like bunching up a stretched out slinky and letting it go)
-amplitude and wave motion are parallel |
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| sound in air is a longitudinal wave created by compressions and rarefactions(opposite of compressions) |
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-with sound, air molecules oscillate in place
-with wind, air moves from place to place (ex. smoke rings are not sound) |
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-these are periodic waveforms called 'sine waves'
- waves like these have a single pitch |
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| wave anatomy (cycle/ wavelength, frequency) |
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cycle/wavelength is the distance between crests of transverse wave or the distance between two compressions
-frequency- repetition rate, or cycles- this determines the perceived pitch |
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-combinations of sine waves
-almost everything we hear in a given day is a complex sound
-ex. a single guitar note is a complex sound because even though it's one note it still has many overtones that give it it's guitar sound |
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the collection of sine wave components called partials that make up complex sounds
--we can break complex waves into their component parts (called partials) through a technique called fourier analysis |
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| harmonic vs. inharmonic complex sounds |
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harmonic- aka overtones- these complex pitched sounds have partials that are integer multiples of fundamental frequency
inharmonic- these complex non pitched sounds (noise) have partials that are at inharmonic multiples of fundamental frequency |
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if the frequencies of tones played together form small integer ratios they will sound pleasant together
-consonant intervals- unison, octave, fifth, and fourth
-in these intervals, the harmonics align or are separated by a critical band distance |
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if the frequencies of tones played together form large integer ratios they will sound unpleasant together
-dissonant interval- augmented fourth (tritone)
-in these intervals the harmonics are near one another with a critical band distance
-- moving into the critical band you hear beats and roughness |
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| sound transduction into neural signals |
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Definition
-pressure variations of sound waves push the eardrum, whose vibrations are transmitted by the ossicles (ear bones) to the cochlea (hearing canal)
- oscillations set up a traveling wave on the basilar membrane
-waves stimulate different groups of nerve "hair" cells depending on the resonance region
-this leads to neural excitation of the auditory nerve, brainstem and cortex |
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| why the critical band for dissonance? |
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the basilar membrane cannot resolve different dissonant frequency components, as they're too close together
-on the other hand, consonant intervals have wave lengths that's peaks are further apart |
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| pitch & discrimination vs. absolute threshold |
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the psychological experience related to frequency of simple periodic sound or fundamental of a complex sound
(in music its perceived in context of melody, harmony and key)
- discrimination: we can discriminate 1500 pitches between the frequency range of 20 to 20,000 Hz
-absolute: sensitivity of human hearing varies with pitch- most sensitive around 3000 Hz, and least sensitive at high and low- high frequency sensitivity decreases with age |
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the high to low quality of pitch
-psychological evidence for this is that closer pitches are more similar
-physiological evidence is that low and high frequencies processed in different parts of basilar membrane |
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the pitch class quality (i.e. C, F, G, etc.)
- all pitches separated by octaves sound the same
---this is true for musicians but non musicians focus exclusively on pitch height in similarity judgments, so it depends upon learned role of pitches in melody, harmony and key |
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Definition
well defined chroma with ambiguous height
(in class example was the scale that sounded like it was continuously increasing but staying in the same octave)
-because the pitch height is ambiguous but people still hear the tones increasing or decreasing its evidence that pitch chroma is a psychologically separate dimension from pitch height |
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| Krumhansl study of pitch in context of key (1990) |
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method- established key using a scale or cadence chord progression, then played a tone and asked subjects how well the probe tone fit with the previous
results-
--musicians- rating corresponded to music theory hierarchy of tones- they rated the 1st 5th and 3rd notes of a scale higher than others
--non musicians- preference for hierarchy of tones is less clear, their ratings depended upon musical experience |
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the quality of sound that is not loudness and pitch
-distinguishes different musical instruments playing the same note
-a quality that differentiates one complex sound from another of identical pitch and loudness
-i.e. tone 'color'
it is dependent upon the distribution of spectral partials and how they change over time, as well as the amplitude envelope (how the amplitude changes over time?) |
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| 4 psychological properties of timbre |
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spectral centroid- balance of energy in spectrum (brightness/dullnes)
-irregularity- (richness) amplitude variation of adjacent components
-roughness- (harshness/smoothness)- inharmonic and noise components in spectrum
-attack/ decay times-(instrument identification)- time taken to reach max amp from 0 (attack) |
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| timbre speed, interaction and processing (3 studies examined these) |
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-speed- timbre identification occurs very quickly (name that tune methodology)
--people have better than chance identification for 1/5 of second but fell to chance when spectral information was destroyed (taking out high frequencies)
-one study looked at how timbre and pitch perception interact- separating pitch into two groups was easy when timbre was constant but difficult when changed
-pitch and timbre are initially processed separately then integrated
--combinations of pitch and timbre in an array of tones were presented a the same time but emanating from different locations
--illusory combination perceived: timbre of one tone combined with pitch of another, which suggests that initial separate registering of pitch and timbre occur, then feature integration |
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