Aligned harmonic phases make sounds sharper and buzzy

Evidence

Such insensitivity to phase can often be assumed, although it has been shown that in some cases the phase and a modification of the phase have a prominent effect on perception. In fact, if the signals in Figure 11.9 are listened to with headphones or with loudspeakers closeby (without the effect of the room), a clear difference is perceived. In the upper panel, all partials of the harmonic complex have their maxima aligned at some temporal position, resulting in a prominent, repetitive peak at corresponding positions. In the lower panel, the phase relationships of the harmonics are random, and no such ‘peakiness’ is seen. The first signal is sharper; that is, it is perceived to have more energy at high frequencies. In addition, the tonal character of such sound has been called ‘buzzy’ (Moore, 2002), or as having high ‘buzzyness’ (Laitinen et al., 2013), referring to a low vibrating sound like that of a bee. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1265

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Defines ‘buzzyness’ — a low vibrating bee-like tonal character arising from aligned harmonic phases.
• CANDY: A fun audio fact: your room makes you hear a signal differently than in headphones because it scrambles the phases that create that sharp, buzzy character.

Related

• Synchronized phase harmonics produce a ‘buzzy’ sharpness perceptible without room reflections (similarity 0.94)
• Reversing the phase of a single harmonic can drastically change its perceived loudness (similarity 0.86)
• Hearing perceives synchronized neural firing across critical bands as buzzy timbre (similarity 0.85)
• The power spectrum is blind to the relative phase of a sound’s components (similarity 0.82)
• Phase alignment creates a ‘buzzy’ timbre perceptible without room reflections (similarity 0.82)
• Simultaneous cochlear neuron firing across frequencies produces buzzy timbre (similarity 0.82)
• Phase relations of partials do not affect perceived timbre. (similarity 0.82)
• Reversing a single harmonic’s phase makes that frequency sound much louder. (similarity 0.81)
• Spectrum magnitude, not phase, drives the perceived timbre of a sound (similarity 0.80)
• Perceived loudness of concurrent tones hinges on frequency separation via three distinct mechanisms (similarity 0.78)