At 2:25 PM -0500 2/16/06, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
At 02:00 PM 2/16/06 -0500, Andrew Stiller wrote:
it has been proven
scientifically, decades ago, that no more than 8 or ten such discrete
levels can be distinguished by the ear.
The generally accepted empirical standared is that the average human ear
can distinguish 3dB differences.
That sounds like what I remember from Experimental Psych, but that's
under controlled lab conditions with no competing or masking sounds.
I don't know whether such experiments have been done in a real-life
acoustic situation. If I recall correctly, the human eye can also
detect a single photon under highly controlled lab conditions, but
that doesn't translate to real life either.
The soft-loud range in live acoustic music
is roughly 30-110 db, so that's more than 25 discrete levels, not even
taking into account the educated hearing of musicians. The Nilsson markings
make even more sense now. The typical musical markings would represent 7dB
differences, and your statement makes that 9dB differences. Have you got a
cite for the 8-10 levels that contradicts the 3dB discrimination?
No, and it may be that the experiments haven't been done yet, but
empirically I can certainly buy that it takes more than a 3 dB
difference to be audible in real life. Plus, of course, there's the
register differences in the Fletcher-Munson loudness curve that
suggests it isn't a continuous function at all frequencies.
Your mention of the educated ear is an important one, but scramble
the seating of orchestral musicians so they don't hear what they're
used to hearing and the perception of dynamic balances changes
drastically. Been there, done that.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
