[Noisebridge-discuss] why a sine wave?

[Walter Funk]

Michael,

I am not sure if we specifically perceive sine waves as pure. We can tell the timbral differences, and do hear 'pure' sounds differently that sounds with harmonics. 

I think the word pure is more of a scientific term, describing the lack of harmonics, not necessarily how we perceive the tones.

About the other question, you may know about Phantom Fundamentals. Wiki-whatever can explain it better and I can in an email-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_fundamental

Speaking of sine waves and perception, looking back, some people today are reconsidering the value of certain classic psychoacoustic test results that used sine waves in lab settings. Seems things like real world factors were not always taken into consideration, skewing results.

A really good book on psychoacoustics which touches on computer music quite a bit is The Science of Musical Sound, by John R Pierce. 

John was the father of communication satellites, and when Max Matthews was doing his pioneering computer music work at Bell Labs during off hours, it was John who told higher ups to 'leave him be', when they were scrutinizing this musical activity. Lucky us, digital audio might be ten years behind if John did not have so much pull, and they pulled the plug on Max.

Cheers,
Walter 

--- On Tue, 1/12/10, Michael Shiloh <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Michael Shiloh <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Noisebridge-discuss] why a sine wave?
> To: "noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net" <noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
> Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 10:59 AM
> Why do we perceive a sine audio wave
> as a "pure" tone? Does it have to
> do with the mechanical vibrations in our ear? Does any
> non-sine wave
> introduce harmonics, vibrations other than the fundamental,
> which our
> brain perceives as non-pure?
> 
> Regardless of mechanics, what is the perceptive reason a
> sine wave
> sounds pure?
> 
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