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I heard a very interesting radio program in the car this morning. It was about the signal processing that the DSP between our ears does and had lots of sound examples.
1. is an old one, hearing the fundamental of a sound even if it is missing. Interesting thing is that even monkeys (who have not grown up listening to Beethoven and Mozart) have this ability. Explanation was that other than musical instruments, only humans and animals make harmonic sounds. This may be a way for those monkey to distinguish their buddies' voices from the general mayhem in the jungle.
2. hearing through omission. There were five sine waves playing continuously with each sine briefly interupted when its note was supposed to be played. Apparently, we can invert this sound and hence recognize the tune.
3. was the eye opener for me. There was a piano piece that had the first 3 ms of each note edited out. It sounded like a very cheap electronic organ or like one of Laurie Anderson's Chello performances.
Both the manuscript and the 25 min. transmission can be downloaded at:
It's in German, unfortunately. Maybe I'll write down and post the time stamps of the most interesting examples.
1. is an old one, hearing the fundamental of a sound even if it is missing. Interesting thing is that even monkeys (who have not grown up listening to Beethoven and Mozart) have this ability. Explanation was that other than musical instruments, only humans and animals make harmonic sounds. This may be a way for those monkey to distinguish their buddies' voices from the general mayhem in the jungle.
2. hearing through omission. There were five sine waves playing continuously with each sine briefly interupted when its note was supposed to be played. Apparently, we can invert this sound and hence recognize the tune.
3. was the eye opener for me. There was a piano piece that had the first 3 ms of each note edited out. It sounded like a very cheap electronic organ or like one of Laurie Anderson's Chello performances.
Both the manuscript and the 25 min. transmission can be downloaded at:
It's in German, unfortunately. Maybe I'll write down and post the time stamps of the most interesting examples.