Make sure your computer speakers can handle higher frequencies. If you felt 
 some sort of pressure but couldn't hear it, then you probably 'felt' the 
sound  pressure but couldn't hear it.
 
_http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/acoustics/ear.htm_ 
(http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/acoustics/ear.htm) 
 
I'm not sure about concurrent frequencies, but from what I've read it is  
the cochlea which determines the frequencies which we can hear. The cochlea  
contains about 20,000 hair cells at birth - one for each frequency from 
about  16Hz to 20,000Hz. When we suffer hearing loss, usually it is a loss of 
the  function of those hair cells. That's also why we can have a ringing in 
the ear  at higher frequencies. 
 
Since we only have one hair cell per frequency - that may be why it's very  
difficult to determine two separate instruments at the exact same pitch and 
 timbre even though we have a cochlea for each ear - and it may be why  
combinations of timbres at the same pitch can lead to some very interesting  
sounds.
 
Just my two cents there.
 
-William
 
 
In a message dated 11/12/2010 4:09:18 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
[email protected] writes:

>  
> From: Michiel van der Linden wrote:
> 
> Sure we can hear  above 5000 Hz unless there is severe hearing damage.
> It is however  very hard to discern and name actual *pitches* in and above
> that  region. The way our neurons pass the information to our brain only
>  functions optimally up to 5000 Hz.
> 
>  http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4077
> 

Thanks for the  link Michiel.

A few paragraphs in, I found this
"The ear, on the  other hand, can separate up to a hundred different sound 
frequencies,  corresponding to the number of frequencies that can be 
separated by the  basilar membrane."

Personally I feel "up to a hundred different sound  frequencies" is a bit 
of an understatement. With 88 notes on a piano, and  since most of us can 
differentiate a note which is more than a few dozen cents  out, I'd have 
thought several hundred was not unreasonable.
Is this writer  reliable?
Not everything on the WEB can be taken as gospel.

I tried  the sound test from an earlier post and though I couldn't "hear" 
the higher  ones (as I could up to 12k) I felt a kind of pressure while the t
racks were  playing, particularly on the highest!
Is this the note itself affecting me,  or background noise from the track, 
I wonder.
Anyone else notice  this?

Simon  V


_______________________________________________
post:  [email protected]
unsubscribe or set options at  
https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/valkhorn%40aol.com

_______________________________________________
post: [email protected]
unsubscribe or set options at 
https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org

Reply via email to