Fully masked spectral components vanish from perception and thus from a sound’s timbre.

Evidence

The masking effect of individual components in musical sounds, which are complex, with many spectral components, can be determined in terms of the masking effect of individual components on other components in the sound. If a component is completely masked by another component in the sound, the masked component makes no contribution to the perceived nature of the sound itself and is therefore effectively ignored. If the masker is broadband noise, or “white noise,” then components at all frequencies are masked in an essentially linear fashion (i.e., a 10 dB increase in the level of the noise increases the masking effect by 10 dB at all frequencies). — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1603

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines broadband ‘white noise’ masking as linear across all frequencies — a key psychoacoustic concept.
• XREF: Links directly to the reader’s interest in listening: what we cannot hear simply isn’t part of the perceived timbre. — connects to: Masked spectral components do not contribute to perceived timbre — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1645; Fully masked spectral components contribute nothing to perceived sound; Masked sound components are perceptually ignored within complex sounds (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Masked spectral components do not contribute to perceived timbre #corroborates (1.00) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1645
• Fully masked spectral components contribute nothing to perceived sound #corroborates (1.00)
• Masked sound components are perceptually ignored within complex sounds #corroborates (1.00)
• Timbre perception can be analyzed through component-to-component masking interactions #complicates (0.90) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1645