Perceived pitch shifts measurably with loudness in frequency-dependent directions

Evidence

With complex tones, the effect is less well defined; Rossing (2001) suggests around 17 cents (0.17 of a semitone) for an intensity change between 65 dBSPL and 95 dBSPL. Rossing gives two suggestions as to where this effect could have musical consequences: (i) he cites Parkin (1974) to note that this pitch shift phenomenon is apparent when listening in a highly reverberant building to the release of a final loud organ chord that appears to sharpen as the sound level diminishes, and (ii) he suggests that the pitch shift observed for sounds with varying rates of waveform amplitude change, while f0 is kept constant, should be “taken into account when dealing with percussion instruments.” — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 921

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the intensity-pitch coupling effect with a precise cent figure and two musical applications.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s acoustics book thread on amplitude changes and pitch perception; also links to the earlier discussion of organ acoustics in this same chapter. — connects to: A 40 dB level increase shifts pure-tone pitch by at most about 3 percent; Pitch strength and loudness scale at sharply different rates with level changes.; Pitch correlates with frequency but is also slightly level-dependent (+7 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 921

Broader Connections

• Loudness changes shift perceived pitch; reverb conceals the effect musically #expands (0.95)
• Raising a sound’s loudness shifts its perceived pitch except near 1-2 kHz. #expands (0.92)
• Volume changes alter perceived frequency balance, not just loudness #expands (0.80)
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness #complicates (0.78) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1248
• A source’s changing directionality with frequency alters perceived timbre via the reverberant field #expands (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1796