Masking a Frequency Band in a Musical Fragment Played by a Single Instrument

P. Kleczkowski, M. Plewa and M. Pluta Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics, AGH University of Science and Technology, al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland

Full Text PDF

The phenomenon of masking in the environment of musical sounds has not yet been deeply investigated. An experiment was conducted to find out whether masking of a band of frequencies in a musical instrument sound by the remaining spectral content of that instrument could be explained by "energetic" masking, i.e. masking resulting from overlapping patterns of excitation on the basilar membrane. An isolated, about one octave wide, band of frequencies of the saxo-phone sound playing a couple of notes legato was masked alternatively by two maskers: CBN - the band of noise occupying the same frequency range plus the remaining spectral content of the saxo-phone sound, and BN - the same band of noise acting alone. For both maskers, the level of noise was increased gradually to detect the respective thresholds of masking. Masker CBN was more efficient in masking by about 15 dB, indicating that the harmonics below and above the analysed band contributed substantially more to masking than noise inside the band. As energetic masking of those harmonics was weak, non-energetic or "informational" masking prevailed.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.119.991 PACS numbers: 43.66.Dc, 43.66.Lj, 43.66.Ba, 43.60.Hj