<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <TITLE>Message</TITLE> <STYLE>.hmmessage P { PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px } BODY.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma } </STYLE> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16414" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY class=hmmessage> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>Hi Diane --</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>I listened to the entire test and found every note to be consistently four seconds long and of reasonably acceptable quality from note to note. However, I would like to suggest that the notes being played are midi notes, not real piano notes. Therefore, the quality of the reproduction of the notes in this test are only going to be as accurate as the quality of the sound/midi card plugged into the computer on which you take the test. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>This test is an interesting toy, but as a home test it's way too dependent on the hardware you have in your computer to provide usable results.</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>-- Geoff Sykes</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>-- Los Angeles</FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=000423902-25102007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV></DIV> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Diane Hofstetter<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:07 PM<BR><B>To:</B> pianotech@ptg.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Strange Hearing Test?<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>On a hard of hearing chat list that I am subscribed to, someone today recommended that  non-audiologists can get an idea of where they have cochlear dead zones by playing the "keys" on this software: <A href="http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/pitch/pitch.html">http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/pitch/pitch.html</A> and listening for: 1. how long the sound sustains, 2. whether the pitch seems to rise when you go up the keyboard and 3. whether the sound is "clunky".<BR> <BR>It seems to me to be a flawed test because the tones are not uniform to begin with--unless I have cochlear dead zones!  <BR> <BR>To my hearing the tones are 4 seconds in length (the chatlister said 2 seconds--I think that proves my slow computer, not my good hearing),  most of the tones have beats of various speeds, and the harmonic content is not consistent.  Just some examples of the latter include: B3 vs C4;  G vs G#4; B5 vs. C6 and C#7 vs D7.  (The octave numbers are the ones we are used to using as pianotechs, not those given in the program.)<BR> <BR>Now, can anyone tell me whether the examples I gave are the same as each other and I have cochlear dead zones?  And what would you advise these hard of hearing folk about the usefulness of this program for testing hearing?<BR> <BR>Thanks!<BR>Diane<BR><BR>Diane Hofstetter<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>