A single note can sound rough only below roughly 100 Hz fundamental

Evidence

In principle, a single note can produce considerable roughness or dissonance, since, with certain pitches, some of the harmonics at high frequencies may be at a distance of a quarter of a critical band. This may be understood better with the results shown in Figure 11.8, which shows that the separation between partials should be less than 100 Hz to create a noticeable perception of roughness. With harmonic complexes, or notes, this can be achieved only with frequencies below 100 Hz and when at least some of the higher frequency partials have a large amplitude. Typically, instrument sounds have an amplitude that decreases with frequency, and such roughness issues are not encountered. On the other hand, in some synthetic bass sounds such roughness may exist. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1292

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an article: synthetic bass sounds (electronic music sub-bass, dubstep) inherit roughness that acoustic instruments escape because their harmonics naturally decay — a perceptual argument about synthesized vs. acoustic timbre.