Pitch Sound

figure 1. pitch perception

pitch perceived how low or high sound , represents cyclic, repetitive nature of vibrations make sound. simple sounds, pitch relates frequency of slowest vibration in sound (called fundamental harmonic). in case of complex sounds, pitch perception can vary. individuals identify different pitches same sound, based on personal experience of particular sound patterns. selection of particular pitch determined pre-conscious examination of vibrations, including frequencies , balance between them. specific attention given recognising potential harmonics. every sound placed on pitch continuum low high. example: white noise (random noise spread evenly across frequencies) sounds higher in pitch pink noise (random noise spread evenly across octaves) white noise has more high frequency content. figure 1 shows example of pitch recognition. during listening process, each sound analysed repeating pattern (see figure 1: orange arrows) , results forwarded auditory cortex single pitch of height (octave) , chroma (note name).