Pitch of sound depends upon the frequency of sound. The greater the frequency, the higher is the pitch and vice versa. It is the pitch of sounds that enable us to distinguished b/w a sound of man and woman or man and dog. Etc. sound of a woman is shrill due to high pitch. Sound of a dog is grave due to low pitch and low frequency. QUALITY OR TIMBER “The property of sound by virtue of which we can distinguish between two sounds of the same pitch and the loudness originating from two different musical instruments.
” The sound produced by two different instruments is usually complex. It is a mixture of several tones. The tone of lowest frequency is called Fundamental frequency and other tones are known as OVERTONES OR HARMONICS. The loudness of sound depends upon the amplitude of vibration. And pitch determined by its fundamental frequency. Two or more sound may have the same loudness and the same pitch but that they may differ in number and relative intensities of overtones. The quality of sound depends upon the wave from of the resultants.
Nature has such a great diversity that it is very rare to have some overtones of two persons exactly. So this difference is overtones makes it possible to recognize each sound. This characteristic of sound is called QUALITY. INTENSITY OF SOUND “The intensity of sound is defined as the amount of energy transmitted per second through unit area held perpendicularly in the direction of sound waves. ” Intensity of sound = E/t. A OR I = E/t. A Pitch Pitch = frequency of sound For example, middle C in equal temperament = 261. 6 Hz
Sounds may be generally characterized by pitch, loudness, and quality. The perceived pitch of a sound is just the ear’s response to frequency, i. e. , for most practical purposes the pitch is just the frequency. The pitch perception of the human ear is understood to operate basically by the place theory, with some sharpening mechanism necessary to explain the remarkably high resolution of human pitch perception. The place theory and its refinements provide plausible models for the perception of the relative pitch of two tones, but do not explain the phenomenon of perfect pitch.
The just noticeable difference in pitch is conveniently expressed in cents, and the standard figure for the human ear is 5 cents. Sound quality is typically an assessment of the accuracy, enjoyability, or intelligibility of audio output from an electronic device. Quality can be measured objectively, such as when tools are used to gauge the accuracy with which the device reproduces an original sound; or it can be measured subjectively, such as when human listeners respond to the sound or gauge its perceived similarity to another sound.
The sound quality of a reproduction or recording depends on a number of factors, including the equipment used to make it, processing and mastering done to the recording, the equipment used to reproduce it, as well as the listening environment used to reproduce it. In some cases, processing such as equalization, dynamic range compression or stereo processing may be applied to a recording to create audio that is significantly different from the original but may be perceived as more agreeable to a listener. In other cases, the goal may be to reproduce audio as closely as possible to the original.
When applied to specific electronic devices, such as loudspeakers, microphones, amplifiers or headphones sound quality usually refers to accuracy, with higher quality devices providing higher accuracy reproduction. When applied to processing steps such as mastering recordings, absolute accuracy may be secondary to artistic or aesthetic concerns. In still other situations, such as recording a live musical performance, audio quality may refer to proper placement of microphones around a room to optimally use room acoustics.
