Since everyone's had a go of guessing - I'll describe exactly what it is and how it was constructed. It's the slow theme from the 3rd movement of Mahler's 1st symphony - but starting on a concert A. I think I heard a few comments about rhythm being out of whack or intonation being a little off - well, believe it or not, the rhythm was exact down to the millisecond. The frequencies were taken from a standard melody starting from A=440 and multiplied by 16. I didn't bother to round to the nearest tenth of a hertz or beyond, so everything was rounded to the nearest whole number in hertz and multiplied by 16. Therefore, at most, the frequencies would have been 8 Hz off - but at that range the most it would be is 2 cents off, which is not very well detectable up there. I did this due to lack of time I had generating it this morning. As for the rhythm, each note is exactly 1 second or .5 seconds or 2 seconds long. The tones are pure sine waves with no overtones - I did this because I was limited to the types of tones I could generate and thought it would be a good starting point. The sampling rate was 44.1khz - so that isn't a factor. In other words, each tone was generated for a set period of time (using a whole number frequency) and then the very next sample (with no overlap) the frequency changes. Or at least that was my goal. I think what some people may be hearing is either from limitations with their own ears (I was surprised I couldn't hear anything beyond 12khz myself) or their computer speakers. Most computer speakers aren't the quality of hi-fi stereo speakers, and even if they were with a guy like me who can't hear above 12khz it may not make much of a difference anyhow. I also think it would be interesting to test this in the extreme low range - but my dog doesn't like subwoofers going below about 25Hz and she tends to want to attack it. I don't blame her. -William In a message dated 11/12/2010 6:28:46 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
I recognized the tune right away, but less by pitch than by rhythm and contour. That was because on my computer, the sound file was generating a set of 'inharmonic' differentials, obscuring the intended pitch. The Nyquist frequency suggests a minimum 10+ khz sampling rate, if these really are sine waves. If they have any overtones at all, you have to double the highest desired frequency of interest and sample at that rate X 2, or set up a filter. I think we're hearing a an awful lot of fold-over. Bob Dickow Lionel Hampton School of Music -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 5:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Hornlist] Name that (high frequency) tune! I found a place to host a sample melody I generated with Sine waves between 7000Hz and 11000Hz. Name that tune! (I used something with a particular key...). _http://www.mediafire.com/file/d64vyqgt3lz18ri/highmelody.wav_ (http://www.mediafire.com/file/d64vyqgt3lz18ri/highmelody.wav) Let's see if people can really tell frequencies apart above 5000Hz. -William In a message dated 11/12/2010 6:41:05 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: On 12Nov 2010, at 12:07 , Michiel van der Linden wrote: > "Melodies played using frequencies above 5000 Hz sound rather > peculiar. You can tell that something is changing but it doesn't sound > "melodic" in any way." > > I've not yet found an audio example online, but will keep looking. Creating your own example on your computer should be easy, I'll try that in a couple of days if nobody else does. Daniel _______________________________________________ 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/dickow%40uidaho.edu _______________________________________________ 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
