7: Pitch, Loudness and Timbre

Sound - An Interactive eBook · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

    The mechanism of human hearing does not operate as a perfect scientific instrument. In this chapter we relate a few subjective measurements of sound (things people report after hearing a sound) to objective, scientific measurements (measurements made in a laboratory using scientific instruments). The three subjective quantities of pitch, loudness and timbre are related to laboratory measurements of a sound wave's fundamental frequency, amplitude and waveform, respectively.

    Key Terms:

    Pitch, fundamental frequency, \(v=f\lambda\), loudness, sound intensity (in \(\text{W/m}^{2}\)), sound intensity level (SIL in \(\text{dB}\)), decibels (\(\text{dB}\)), inverse square law, just noticeable difference (loudness and frequency), timbre.

    This page titled 7: Pitch, Loudness and Timbre was last modified on Thu, 13 Aug 2020 19:53:12 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kyle Forinash and Wolfgang Christian via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.