Removing a sound’s fundamental leaves its perceived pitch unchanged

Evidence

Figure 3.7 shows an idealized spectrum of a sound that contains just odd harmonics (1 f0, 3 f0, 5 f0, …) and shows that measurement of the frequency distance between adjacent harmonics would give f0, 2 f0, 2 f0, 2 f0 and so forth. The minimum spacing between the harmonics is f0, which gives a possible basis for pitch perception. However, if the f0 component were removed (imagine removing the dotted f0 component in Figure 3.7), the perceived pitch would not change. Now, however, the spacing between adjacent harmonics is 3 f0, 2 f0, 2 f0, 2 f0 and so on and the minimum spacing is 2 f0, but the pitch does not jump up by an octave. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 856

Categorization

• XREF: The classic ‘missing fundamental’ phenomenon every psychoacoustics reader must grasp; could cross-reference if this chapter follows earlier Chapters 1-2 place/resonance material.
• QUESTION: Why does pitch remain even when adjacent-harmonic spacing (the proposed cue) actually changes from f0 to 2 f0? Worth chasing the resolution further in the chapter.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 856