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How the cochlea computes (2024)

(www.dissonances.blog)
475 points izhak | 1 comments | 30 Oct 25 17:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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p0w3n3d ◴[30 Oct 25 17:21 UTC] No.45762510[source]▶
Tbh I used to think that it does. For example, when playing higher notes, it's harder to hear the out-of-tune frequencies than on the lower notes.
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fallingfrog ◴[30 Oct 25 17:32 UTC] No.45762672[source]▶
I haven't noticed that effect, to be honest. Actually I think its the really low bass frequencies that are harder to tune- especially if you remove the harmonics and just leave the fundamental.

Are you perhaps experiencing some high frequency hearing loss?

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jacquesm ◴[30 Oct 25 17:37 UTC] No.45762737[source]▶
It's even more complex than that. The low notes are hard to tune because the fundamentals are very close to each other and you need to have super good hearing to match the beats, fortunately they sound for a long time so that helps. Missing fundamentals are a funny thing too, you might not be 'hearing' what you think you hear at all! The high notes are hard to tune because they sound very briefly (definitely on a piano) and even the slightest movement of the pin will change the pitch considerably.

In the middle range (say, A2 through A6) neither of these issues apply, so it is - by far - the easiest to tune.

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1. fallingfrog ◴[30 Oct 25 20:47 UTC] No.45765123{3}[source]▶
Welll. On guitar you cant really use the "matching the beats" or the thing where you play the 4th on the string below and make them sound in unison, because if you do that all the way up the neck your guitar will be tuned to Just intonation instead of equal interval intonation and certain chords will sound very bad. A series of perfect 4ths and a perfect 3rd does not add up to an octave. Its better to reference everything to the low e string and just kind of know where the pitches are supposed to land.

That's a side note, the rest of what you wrote was very informative!