Pitch vs Frequency

[ahofer]

I was having a discussion about pitch vs frequency on a music theory site, and the best definition they have is subjective perception of the note played. And of course there are noises which are perceived to lack pitch.

I’m curious whether there is literature that relates measurements to the perceived pitch (ie relative amplitude of fundamental?). I presume there is a lot of commonality in pitch perception. Anyone have good reading?

 

[egellings]

I don't have any recommended reading on this topic, but my own perception of the difference in the two words is this: pitch is a particular musical note sung or played on a musical instrument. It will be a mixture of tones of different frequencies summed together to give the instrument or voice its particular tone quality. Frequency is the number of events per unit time, or rep rate. Typically, a frequency might be a setting on a signal generator, and if the signal is a low distortion sine wave, a note of only one frequency would be present. It would not be a mixture of different frequencies.

 

[kemmler3D]

As far as I know:

Pitch : Frequency :: Loudness : Volume

You might have heard of the "missing fundamental" effect, the basis for various bass-boosting effects here and there over the past 30 years or so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental - a good example of pitch perception vs. underlying frequency content.

 

[Petrushka]

Pitch is usually in reference to some tuning theory, of which there are many.

A (musical note) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Even modern orchestras sometimes differ slightly in their tuning.

There was a video posted here recently dealing with auditory illusions. Among the goodies, we tend to hear the fundamental when only the overtones are actually present.

 

[ahofer]

Thanks. I’m specifically interested in what measurements will dictate the perceived pitch (or lack thereof).

 

[Petrushka]

Overtones are related to the fundamental by rational intervals. (1/2, 1/3, 1/5), but the western tuning interval is the twelfth root of two. This discrepancy can cause chords to sound harsh.

 

[Petrushka]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/pitch-perception

 

[Multicore]

I don't have any reading to offer. Sorry.

I think the simplest thing is to say that pitch and frequency are defined as the same thing to us engineers (per time) and then we can talk about pitch with musicians and composers etc.

Now consider the transcription problem. It's something some people do a lot. If people can agree what note we heard then we can get the pitch (frequency) from the note. I used the idea of people agreeing because sometimes it's not so clear what the note is. So this is an example of statistical psychoacoustics using a panel of listeners. I remember transcribing the solos on It's About That Time on In a Silent Way. Most of the notes are clear enough but some lead to argument.

So, for my practical purposes, identify the note by listening (letter, octave, and if needed half/quarter sharp/flat). Then pitch/frequency are properties of the note. There are some other complications of course, e.g. split notes, vibrato, glissando effects and so on, for which modern notation exists but let's start with the more easy stuff.

 

[Multicore]

Thanks. I’m specifically interested in what measurements will dictate the perceived pitch (or lack thereof).

Transcribe! is a very good and popular transcription software product. The screenshots and text here might give some clues

Transcribe! Screenshots

The spectra in practice are often more complex than those shown.

 

[Multicore]

Perhaps the AI used to unmix the audio so it could be remixed for Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back can be relevant here. Maybe something was published about that tech.

 

[NTK]

Don't know if this is the area (or one of the areas) you are interested in. I found 4 "mini-reviews" in this Sep 2012 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. The one titled "Pitch Perception" is probably most interesting and/or relevant.

The Journal of Neuroscience: 32 (39)

www.jneurosci.org

You can dig through the reference list if you desire to go deeper. The author of this "mini-review" is also a coauthor of this book.

Pitch

link.springer.com

Or this

Pitch and Pitch Perception

This chapter addresses sensation and perception of pitch mainly from a functional perspective. Anatomical and physiological facts concerning the auditory pathway are provided to the extent necessary to understand excitation processes resulting from sound energy...

link.springer.com

 

[DWPress]

Thanks. I’m specifically interested in what measurements will dictate the perceived pitch (or lack thereof).

If it's for musical material maybe an RTA, I have a fancy plugin that can separate the m/s material or isolate a single sound anywhere the pointer is clicked on your typical 20-20k analyzer plot and pass to monitors.