Plosive consonants get masked by preceding loud vowels even in free field

Evidence

Masking in steady-state condition with long-lasting test and masking sounds, was described in previous sections. However, the transmission of information in music or speech implies a strong temporal structure of the sound. Loud sounds are followed by faint sounds and vice versa. In speech, the vowels generally represent the loudest parts whereas consonants are relatively faint. A plosive consonant is a typical example of a sound that is often masked by a preceding loud vowel. The effect occurs not only because of the reverberation of the room in which speech is received, but also in free-field conditions, because of the temporal effects of masking which characterize our hearing system. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 484

Categorization

• SHARE: For an audio engineer or speech scientist: temporal masking erases plosives in free field, not just due to room reverberation.