Author Topic: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception  (Read 9416 times)

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Offline GameSnake

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #15 on: December 11, 2006, 06:55:20 pm »
Very neat test! I need to know pitch differences when I tune my guitar.

Offline Armin

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #16 on: December 11, 2006, 07:34:14 pm »
Decibels (dB) is intensity/loudness, while frequency (Hz) is pitch.

A decibel is a way to measure "loudness."  Saying it is intensity/loudness is sort of like using a word you're trying to define in a definition.  Furthermore, a dB is dimensionless.  It's just a number.

The measurement is defined in several ways, but they all include a base 10 logarithm of a ratio between some measured number and a reference number.  A common example is intensity:



I_0 is usually defined as the "threshold of human hearing."

More accurately, frequency is the number of cyles a wave has per unit time (Hz is cycles/second).  If you have a pressure wave moving in air, it's the number of full cycles that pass a fixed point in some given number of time (again, usually 1 second).  It's also the inverse of the period, which you'll probably be able to deduct (if you didn't know already; I sort of expect you do, since you like sound and all) is the amount of time that passes during one cycle of the wave.  Pitch is kind of... the perception of frequency.
Yeah, I thought you were trying to say something else.
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Offline GameSnake

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #17 on: December 11, 2006, 09:18:21 pm »
A lower pitch has longer, more slow waves waves, while higher pitch has shorter, more frequent waves.. It's elementary really.

Offline Sidoh

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #18 on: December 11, 2006, 10:08:25 pm »
A lower pitch has longer, more slow waves waves, while higher pitch has shorter, more frequent waves.. It's elementary really.

A lower pitch can be directly inferred from a low frequency, yes, but the velocity of a pressure wave in air (speed of sound) is constant if the conditions it's traveling in are constant.

Like I said "pitch" is the conception of frequency.  I still don't think you know much about waves, which you've seemed to demonstrate here.

Offline Armin

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #19 on: December 11, 2006, 10:41:46 pm »
A lower pitch has longer, more slow waves waves, while higher pitch has shorter, more frequent waves.. It's elementary really.

A lower pitch can be directly inferred from a low frequency, yes, but the velocity of a pressure wave in air (speed of sound) is constant if the conditions it's traveling in are constant.
If I'm thinking of the right thing, an example of this is talking after you suck up helium. Even if the wavelength is exactly the same, helium, being a lighter gas that moves more quickly, will result in a higher pitch.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2006, 11:36:26 pm by Metal Militia »
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Offline Sidoh

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #20 on: December 12, 2006, 12:26:20 am »
If I'm thinking of the right thing, an example of this is talking after you suck up helium. Even if the wavelength is exactly the same, helium, being a lighter gas that moves more quickly, will result in a higher pitch.

Yeah. 

However, the speed of sound in a substance is relational to its density, not weight.  This is why the only quantative way to define the "regular" speed of sound must involve a temperature.

Offline Chavo

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #21 on: December 12, 2006, 12:28:35 am »
note that v in that equation is the wave speed in a vacuum, frequency is constant for a given wave (the wavelength changes proportionally).

Offline Sidoh

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #22 on: December 12, 2006, 12:32:39 am »
note that v in that equation is the wave speed in a vacuum, frequency is constant for a given wave (the wavelength changes proportionally).

mmhm

Offline Super_X

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #23 on: December 12, 2006, 05:48:59 pm »
A lower pitch has longer, more slow waves waves, while higher pitch has shorter, more frequent waves.. It's elementary really.

Yes, Watson. Quite elementary, indeed.

Offline MyndFyre

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #24 on: December 12, 2006, 07:06:03 pm »
I didn't have the patience for the first test.  On the second, I got 0.525 Hz.

Of course I was a musician for 9 years of my life, including a year in college, where you need to be able to do that kind of thing... ;)
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Offline GameSnake

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #25 on: December 12, 2006, 10:31:53 pm »
A lower pitch has longer, more slow waves waves, while higher pitch has shorter, more frequent waves.. It's elementary really.

A lower pitch can be directly inferred from a low frequency, yes, but the velocity of a pressure wave in air (speed of sound) is constant if the conditions it's traveling in are constant.

Like I said "pitch" is the conception of frequency.  I still don't think you know much about waves, which you've seemed to demonstrate here.
No I dont much about waves.. If you know so much about everything what do you plan to do with yourself? I know chicken salad from chicken shit.

Offline iago

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #26 on: December 12, 2006, 10:38:01 pm »
No I dont much about waves.. If you know so much about everything what do you plan to do with yourself? I know chicken salad from chicken shit.
Can you explain the difference, please?  Because last week, I had a bit of an incident.....

Offline GameSnake

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #27 on: December 12, 2006, 10:39:32 pm »
No I dont much about waves.. If you know so much about everything what do you plan to do with yourself? I know chicken salad from chicken shit.
Can you explain the difference, please?  Because last week, I had a bit of an incident.....
Just dont eat the soft, brown colored material that smells foul and you'll be OK.

Offline Sidoh

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #28 on: December 13, 2006, 03:07:53 am »
No I dont much about waves.. If you know so much about everything what do you plan to do with yourself? I know chicken salad from chicken shit.

Software engineer.

You said it was elementary, which seemed to "imply" that you knew what you were talking about. ;)

Offline iago

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Re: Tonedeafness + Pitch Perception
« Reply #29 on: December 13, 2006, 10:01:02 am »
Just dont eat the soft, brown colored material that smells foul and you'll be OK.
So avoid KFC?  Got it.