Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!randvax!edhall
From: edhall@rand.org (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: Hearing (was <None>)
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.012635.20827@rand.org>
Date: 10 Apr 91 01:26:35 GMT
References: <425389987@1991Apr7.100059.1489@urz.unibas.>
Sender: news@rand.org
Reply-To: edhall@rand.org
Organization: The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 16
Originator: edhall@ives

>>The ear is capable of hearing a range of up to 10 octaves.
>>This makes it possible to us to hear all the overtones that enable us
>>to distinguish vowels (understand language).

Actually, only three and a half of those ten octaves are necessary
for most speech sounds; consider that telephony is generally band-
limited to 300-3500Hz.  (There are certain sibilant sounds which
require energy outside of this range to be properly distinguished,
but that's not a problem in English, at least.)

Also, consider that our ancestors had ears (or something like them)
for a couple hundred million years before they had speech.  Lucky
for us...

		-Ed Hall
		edhall@rand.org