Extra partials anchor complex-tone pitch against loudness-induced shift

Evidence

For complex tones, the amount of shift and its direction depends on which partials dominate the tone, but fortunately for music, complex tones shift much less than pure tones, as if the extra partials help to “anchor” the pitch. The reason may be contained in the previous paragraph: if low-and high-frequency partials are reacting in opposite directions, then a complex tone containing both might not shift at all, on average. It would be interesting to study partials that are heard out analytically in loud versus soft sounds: do partials in a complex tone shift as they would if heard in isolation? — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2183

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• QUESTION: The author poses an open experimental question: do partials shift within a complex tone as they would in isolation? Could be a research angle.

Related

• Adding higher partials can drop the perceived pitch of a tone (similarity 0.89)
• A set of harmonically related partials shifted together still changes perceived pitch. (similarity 0.86)
• Perceived pitch persists even when the matching frequency partial is absent (similarity 0.84)
• Partially masking a tone shifts its perceived pitch upward (similarity 0.84)
• Complex-tone pitch tracks the spectral pitch of lower components (similarity 0.84)
• Shifted complex tone pitch depends on envelope-fine-structure interaction, not fine structure alone. (similarity 0.84)
• Phase shifting shared partials inadvertently alters amplitude through interference (similarity 0.84)
• Highest common factor of partials encodes perceived pitch (similarity 0.83)
• Partial masking shifts pitch away from the masker’s spectral region (similarity 0.83)
• Pitch shift magnitude correlates inversely with pitch strength of masked tones (similarity 0.83)
• Shifting harmonic partials upward raises perceived pitch despite unchanged envelope modulation (similarity 0.83)
• Loudness changes shift perceived pitch; reverb conceals the effect musically (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived pitch depends on a note’s individual overtone amplitudes (similarity 0.82)
• Pitch differences caused by shifts are not purely fine-structure based (similarity 0.82)
• Fine structure alone does not determine pitch differences in complex tones sharing envelope frequency (similarity 0.82)