[LAD] Internally representing pitch : A new approach

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Tue, Oct 04, 2011 at 10:21:53AM +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 04, 2011 at 09:19:48AM +1300, Jeff McClintock wrote:
> >  Don't use plain frequency in Hertz, Hz are very un-musical because they do
> > not scale the same way as our ear perceives pitch.
> 
> I disagree here. 

I had the same reaction when reading 'Hz are very un-musical
because they do not scale the same way as our ear perceives
pitch'.

So what ? None of the traditional ways to represent pitch 
do that. It's irrelevant.

Pitch perception depends on loudness, spectrum, the presence
of modulation (in both the musical and technical meanings of
that word actually), the presence of other signals, etc.
Do MIDI note numbers or any logarithmic scale (e.g. octaves)
capture that any better than 'Hz' ? Not at all. There are other
indications that things are not as simple as they are often
presented. For example, critical bandwidths do not obey either
a linear nor a logarithmic law. 

And anyway, at some point when generating a signal and no
matter how you express pitch, you have to convert to Hz and
divide by the sample rate (also Hz). 

Ciao,

-- 
FA