Musical Soundwaves

[Carl Meyer]

I've been meaning to jump in here.  I think that in the stone ages (My generation)  the phone response was 300-3000 hertz  (I wish they hadn't changed from cycles).  It was tailored so that the response was rising at maybe 3 db per octave toward the 3000 end.

Bass response tends to detract from intelligibility whereas at the 3000 hertz frequency it improves.  This is due to the fact that the consonants fall in that range and the consonants carry much of the intelligibility.  Vowels, on the other hand tend to be louder and at lower frequency so they need to be attenuated.  

Ever notice that rock bands turn the bass up so that you can't understand the lyrics?  Not much loss since they don't make much sense anyway. That's why a woman's voice can be understood across a noisy room better than a man's.  Nothing sexist, just science.

Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG
Santa Clara, California
cmpiano@attbi.com 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: Musical Soundwaves


> 
> >Hi Ed,
> >
> >Make that 50 hertz to 6,000 hertz for the telephone 
> 
> Are you sure about that???  I have had people play the top note of a piano 
> (4100 +Hz)over the phone to me, and I couldn't hear anything but a thunk.  I 
> didn't think the normal phone lines offered anywhere near that response. 
> Ed.  
>