Pitch strength and loudness scale at sharply different rates with level changes.

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1248; Pitch correlates with frequency but is also slightly level-dependent; Perceived pitch shifts measurably with loudness in frequency-dependent directions — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 921 (+4 more)

Related

• Pitch correlates with frequency but is also slightly level-dependent (similarity 0.95)
• Perceived pitch shifts measurably with loudness in frequency-dependent directions (similarity 0.93)
• A 40 dB level increase shifts pure-tone pitch by at most about 3 percent (similarity 0.92)
• Pitch strength rises only modestly with level while loudness explodes. (similarity 0.88)
• Raising a sound’s loudness shifts its perceived pitch except near 1-2 kHz. (similarity 0.88)
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness (similarity 0.88)
• Raising intensity lowers pitch at low frequencies but raises it at high frequencies. (similarity 0.86)
• Raising the level of a complex tone shifts its pitch downward. (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch shifts with intensity but individual listener variability is large. (similarity 0.85)
• Natural complex sounds make level changes easier to hear than pure tones do. (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch as a sensory dimension has both height and perceptual strength, which vary independently. (similarity 0.84)
• Loudness changes shift perceived pitch; reverb conceals the effect musically (similarity 0.84)
• Sound intensity changes perceived pitch of pure tones except near 1–2 kHz (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch strength varies independently of perceived pitch height (similarity 0.84)
• Raising a tone’s level lowers low-frequency pitch but raises high-frequency pitch (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Perceived pitch shifts measurably with loudness in frequency-dependent directions #expands (0.82) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 921
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness #expands (0.80) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1248
• Pitch strength declines as stimuli move from pure tones toward noise #expands (0.80)
• Raising a tone’s level lowers low-frequency pitch but raises high-frequency pitch #expands (0.80)
• Pitch correlates with frequency but is also slightly level-dependent #expands (0.78)