Re: OT Noises through pickups (rather gongs...)

[lance glover <baumhaus@earthlink.net>]

Martin Tauchen wrote:

> So true,eventhough this low tone is not really produced,nevertheless
> we can "hear" it.
> The reason is simple.Our ears can also be tricked-or missinterpret-
> an acoustic effect,like our visible recognition.
> In this case,we hear from a bell all overtones/harmonics,but the
> "Base Tone" is physical missing.Our brain now adds this missing
> first harmonic to the reall appearing overtones and so we hear also
> this low base-overtone of the harmonic spectrum of the bell.
>
> This effect is also used for such devices like Subharmonic Exciters and
> Psychoacoustic-effects devices.Bring in the sound more bass,without
> changing the volume of a signal.
>
> There are also other nice audiorelated phenomens to trick our audible
> recognition.Like the Sheppards Effect,with an infinitley,decreasing
> sound.
>
> Martin
>
>

not to drag this even further off-topic, but there does seem to be some
corollary to the world of optical illusions as well; if we see small dots 
of
cyan, magenta, yellow and black in certain combinations, other colors 
appear
to us, even though they do not "physically" exist. it's not exactly the 
same
as hearing overtones of a fundamental which is not present, but similar, i
suppose...

is there a source of information in re the "sheppards effect" you could
direct us to?


lance g.