Well, I wanted to find out how truly poor my sense of hearing was. I had been keenly following some posts on [ARSCLIST] and I was positive that my sense of hearing was not even remotely close to detect things that should have been obvious. So I decided to test myself.
O Would a pitch shift of 0.44% make a singer sound like a canary?
O Would a pitch shift of 0.44% be obvious?
O Is it easier to detect a pitch shift with a real instrument as opposed to a sine wave test tone?
Observations and testing hints
· I used Audacity Transport-Loop after selecting the extent of the test waveform so that it would loop smoothly.
· Use enclosed headphones.
· If you think you can hear the change in pitch, close your eyes for 30 seconds while listening so you can not tell when you cross the boundary from one tone to the next. And see if you are still sure you can hear the difference.
How bad is my hearing?
· On the 3 seconds of piano shifted by 0.44% times two (0.88%) I could not reliably hear the difference. I found the fact there was a richer timbre made it much more difficult to hear a pitch shift
· I experienced absolutely nothing that would make any vocalist sing like a canary.
· With the 1000 Hz 1005 hz tones I could hear what I would describe as a slide or bump as the second tone started, but once into the second tone I was not really aware of a new frequency.
· With the 400 Hz 402 hz tones hearing the shift from one to the other was much less obvious.
· I thought I could hear the frequency shift in the test tones if I listened really intently, but then when I closed my eyes so that I was unaware of where the playback was, I was less certain. Hearing the transition between the 1000 1005 was somewhat apparent.
· In fact, after sitting calmly for a long time I could experience a tiny wavering in frequency that did not exist in the source, but probably had more to do with my pulse. Enclosed headsets required and keep it looping.
· If I clenched and unclenched my jaw while listening to the 0.5% shifted test tones I could cause a subjective pitch shift much greater than I could detect while sitting relaxed.
· I also felt my pulse on my wrist and could, if I was in a suggestive mode, convince myself that my heart-beat could be detected as a pitch-shift in my hearing. I should do some heavy exercises and retest this. And we won’t even bring yawning into this. Also, try standing on an old mechanical un-dampened weigh scale and watch the needle move with your pulse (nothing to do with this test or audio – or does it?)
Conclusions on my own sense of hearing
1) An absolute pitch shift of 0.44% is all but undetectable to me in any reliable way, especially at 400 hz and this is when the tones are played back to back.
Re-entering a room would make any possible difference absolutely un-detectable to me.
2) Conducting the test with material with richer timbre made it much harder, not easier to detect a pitch shift.
3) None of the things that were described as obvious were obvious to me at all.
If your hearing is as poor as mine then a recording could be off many times 0.44% and you would not have a blessed clue.
I could never depend on my own hearing to know the playback speed to a 0.44% tolerance.
The suggested piano test (see below) seems like a great way to check a recording.
Regarding the quote “Any musician must be able to discern such a difference. Otherwise, they'd never be able to tune
