The Tritone Paradox

[51m0n]

Well I've had a listen through das uber monitors.

And then to make sure I wasnt going mad I did some measurements, and applied a very neat FFT EQ to cut out all but the bottom note of each pair of chords.

And the results made me sit up for a bit and have a long think.

The truth is the fundamentals go:-

D D D A

But, the fundamental note is significantly lower in level than the rest of the tones in each chord, so [i]dependant upon the quality of your monitoring[/i] (more than anything else at all!) the chances are you wont hear the fundamental, or possibly the tone above it in one of the two chords each time, so you will hear the two chords ascend when they actually descend, or vice versa.

My Sennheisers arent up to the job at all then

Edited June 26, 2012 by 51m0n

[derrenleepoole]

My friend made a comment when he listened to it that this is more a paradox of overtones rather than fundamentals. Probably a lot easier to hear and judge if we we're listening to it using a pure sine wave instead.

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' timestamp='1340797908' post='1709686']
My friend made a comment when he listened to it that this is more a paradox of overtones rather than fundamentals. Probably a lot easier to hear and judge if we we're listening to it using a pure sine wave instead.
[/quote]

Exactly, all other sounds are made up of overtones and since a tritone above is the same note as a tritone below it's all about identifying the fundamental to determine which octave it is. Which is why we're all getting different results.

[Count Bassy]

Not really a paradox is it as it seems to have been adequately understood and explained.

Now travelling back in time and killing one of your antecedents, or your younger self - now there's a paradox for you!

Edited June 28, 2012 by Count Bassy