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Data on % of population who do/don’t hear pitch fluctuation?

billybuck

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After years of participating in audio and musicians’ forums, I (along with many) suspect there’s something in the genes that causes some to hear relatively small fluctuations in pitch while others don’t. I think it’s probably similar, though not concurrent with, “perfect pitch” in which someone can produce a specified note on demand without a prior reference point. As with that phenomenon, the susceptibility to pitch fluctuation appears to be:

A) Unlearned and (fundamentally, at least) unlearnable
B) Present in a small minority of people
C) Unrelated to musical skill or experience
D) Unrelated to one’s subjective enjoyment of music

A recent example in the audio world is the Blue Note 80/Tone Poet vinyl release series in which there appears to have been a problem in the mastering process that introduced pitch variations into those pressings. Given the same pressing, some hear wild “wow” effects that are instantly identifiable and practically unlistenable, while the majority hear nothing unusual at all.

In the musicians’ world, there’s the typical case of the highly skilled guitarist who’s often slightly out of tune but doesn’t hear it, or the virtuoso classical pianist who has to be told by his lowly record producer that his instrument needs a tuneup. It’s primarily an issue with fixed-pitch instruments like piano and guitar, likely because vocalists and wind instrumentalists who don’t hear these small fluctuations probably don’t stick with music very long.

Technology has mooted a lot of this, as digital audio doesn’t fluctuate and the cheap availability of electronic tuning keeps most guitarists and keyboardists in fine tune whether they know it or not (whether that’s always a good thing is a subject for another discussion).

Is there any hard data on this subject, say an old AES paper from the analog days?
 
After years of participating in audio and musicians’ forums, I (along with many) suspect there’s something in the genes that causes some to hear relatively small fluctuations in pitch while others don’t. I think it’s probably similar, though not concurrent with, “perfect pitch” in which someone can produce a specified note on demand without a prior reference point. As with that phenomenon, the susceptibility to pitch fluctuation appears to be:

A) Unlearned and (fundamentally, at least) unlearnable
B) Present in a small minority of people
C) Unrelated to musical skill or experience
D) Unrelated to one’s subjective enjoyment of music

A recent example in the audio world is the Blue Note 80/Tone Poet vinyl release series in which there appears to have been a problem in the mastering process that introduced pitch variations into those pressings. Given the same pressing, some hear wild “wow” effects that are instantly identifiable and practically unlistenable, while the majority hear nothing unusual at all.

In the musicians’ world, there’s the typical case of the highly skilled guitarist who’s often slightly out of tune but doesn’t hear it, or the virtuoso classical pianist who has to be told by his lowly record producer that his instrument needs a tuneup. It’s primarily an issue with fixed-pitch instruments like piano and guitar, likely because vocalists and wind instrumentalists who don’t hear these small fluctuations probably don’t stick with music very long.

Technology has mooted a lot of this, as digital audio doesn’t fluctuate and the cheap availability of electronic tuning keeps most guitarists and keyboardists in fine tune whether they know it or not (whether that’s always a good thing is a subject for another discussion).

Is there any hard data on this subject, say an old AES paper from the analog days?


I'm pretty sure I'm in the category of "hear relatively small fluctuations in pitch". There might be a "learned" element to it. I survived LPs for decades before realizing I was hearing various pitch variations. In addition to disc eccentricity [always heard that] listening to all-digital production and hearing a lot of live, unamplified, music as a recording engineer, I would hear more pitch fluctuation. This applies to flutter in particular.

"In the musicians’ world, there’s the typical case of the highly skilled guitarist who’s often slightly out of tune but doesn’t hear it, or the virtuoso classical pianist who has to be told by his lowly record producer that his instrument needs a tuneup."

That never happen with ANY pianist I recorded. However, I had one client who specialized in original fortepianos that could never hold tune, being warped with age. All the lute players I recorded were hyperconscious about tuning.

Having everyone playing in tune is always a good thing, digital tuners are a gift from heaven.
 
After years of participating in audio and musicians’ forums, I (along with many) suspect there’s something in the genes that causes some to hear relatively small fluctuations in pitch while others don’t.


I find some discomfort listening to singers that repeatedly hit slightly sour note, usually sharp. It seems to occur most often as a note is held at the end of a phrase. I can't think of an specific example at the moment.

It's usually very slight (in those that actually make a living from the arts).

Maybe it's just my perception, and not real, but others don't do it, so...

It does not make me wish they were autotuned.

On the other hand, I don't seem to notice problems with instrumental pitch nearly as often.

I never seem to be bothered by the pitch of spoken word, when not accompanied by an instrumental reference.
 
In a quick ABX test, I can readily identify a pitch change of 1% in sine tones. Reducing the change quickly makes it quite difficult and then impossible. I don't know where that places me relative to the average person.
 
I can hear up to 5 different foreign languages simultaneously if this counts.
 
1) I'm pretty sure I'm in the category of "hear relatively small fluctuations in pitch". There might be a "learned" element to it. I survived LPs for decades before realizing I was hearing various pitch variations. In addition to disc eccentricity [always heard that] listening to all-digital production and hearing a lot of live, unamplified, music as a recording engineer, I would hear more pitch fluctuation. This applies to flutter in particular.

2) Having everyone playing in tune is always a good thing, digital tuners are a gift from heaven.

1) I have a quartz PLL turntable and can turn off the lock--the strobe shows minute fluctuations (I guess this would be flutter) and long term drift with the lock off, but frankly I can't say I've recognized it as a listening artifact. I'm sure there is a point where the drift/fluctuation would be noticeable to me, but I haven't experimented.

I once or twice had the embarrassment of accidentally switching the machine to 45, and then thinking, "You know, something doesn't sound right!" I'm sure if I had it on 78 it would be immediately recognizable. LOL

2) With the electronic tuner I can go from flat to sharp, and know immediately (by sound) when the string is in tune (along with the LED confirmation). However without the tuner I can't really get too close to the reference E on my guitar from memory. Once I get that I can pretty much use my ear to tune all other strings, however I rely on my electronic tuner. Maybe it's age, or just laziness on my part.
 
1) I have a quartz PLL turntable and can turn off the lock--the strobe shows minute fluctuations (I guess this would be flutter) and long term drift with the lock off, but frankly I can't say I've recognized it as a listening artifact. I'm sure there is a point where the drift/fluctuation would be noticeable to me, but I haven't experimented.
I suggest ABXing against a CD [or some other digital file] of the same music.
 
Some great tests available on this site:

https://www.audiocheck.net/index.php


Here is one for testing your pitch detection abilities, ranging from discriminating differences from 50c all the way down to 1c:

https://www.audiocheck.net/blindtests_pitch.php?cent=1


Here is a wikipedia article on the cent including a little bit on human perception:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(music)



There are lots of other interesting blind tests on the AudioCheck site, including:

 
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