A convincing chorus emerges from 5 to 10 slightly pitch-shifted copies
Evidence
Software and hardware tools exist that mimic the chorus effect by creating and combining many slightly pitch-shifted instruments from an original single instrument sound. This can be done by hand, starting with a single track of a solo voice or instrument, randomizing its pitch by a percent or two (without changing the speed of playback—a nice trick made possible in many sound processing packages; see section 17.10) and combining it (mixing it) with the original. A convincing chorus effect emerges once this is repeated 5 or 10 times with slightly different pitches applied each time. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 421
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SEED: Angle: how audio engineering reverse-engineered a perceptual illusion — a mini-essay on chorus pedals and auditory psychophysics.
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier readings on sound processing and pitch perception mechanics.
Related
- Adding a detuned copy of a voice makes it sound like a choir. (similarity 0.80)
- A chorus can have definite pitch even when every singer is slightly off pitch (similarity 0.79)
- Slightly mistuned voices perceptually fuse into one pitched tone (similarity 0.79)